Dreams and New Beginnings
by Featherflower
Summary: A series of Blackrock Chronicle one-shots and two-shots. Lots of Zoethian, and lots of feels. I suck at writing descriptions, please don't judge me!
1. Chapter 1

**The Memories of an Enderborn**

**So! Hello, I'm Featherflower, and this is Fanfiction. Lol! So, anyways, as my friend SpiritedandLoyal said, some memories can be happy. Others can come back and cut you, like glass. This is a fanfic that will literally be full of all my Blackrock one-shots, so, I hope you enjoy. It could go anywhere from a first kiss to the death of people close to the members of the Yogscast. POV is Rythian unless otherwise stated. Enjoy me being evil!**

**I will do one about insanity next, then something fluffy and full of WAFF.**

**Chapter 1**

**Oh, love doesn't always make you happy. Sometimes it makes you terribly sad.**

**THANK YOU RICK RIORDAN FOR WRITING THAT!**

**Anyways, this story isn't about love, it's about war. Which can often help bring love into play. I just love Cupid's lines from the House of Hades. Even if he's a jerk.**

**This is a complicated story. It's not a songfic, but I did get my inspiration from a song. It's a cover of Blown Away, you can easily find it on YouTube, it's sung by PandaSingsStuff. Honest, girl. If Justin Bieber can get famous from YouTube, *shudder*, you can too.**

**The song is about a war. A Tekkit war. I can't say more without ruining the plot line for my story.**

**So. A Tekkit war.  
>Sjin <strong>_**the melon suit man, **_**Sips, **_**the business man**_**, and Lalna **_**the scientist**_**  
>VS<br>Rythian, **_**the boy/mage, **_**Zoeya **_**the girl/mushroom princess**_** and Teep **_**the dinosaur **_**Right?**

***these nicknames are important.***

**But this list leaves the following characters unmentioned:  
>-Martyn LittleWood, <strong>_**The Sapling Prince**_**  
>-KaeyiDream (Likely not present at time of war) <strong>_**the dreamer**_**  
>-NanoSounds <strong>_**the apprentice**_**  
>-MintyMinute <strong>_**the bartender**_**  
>-Lomadia <strong>_**the owl gir)**_**  
>-Nilesy <strong>_**the pool boy**_**  
>-Strippin <strong>_**The health nut**_**  
>-Xephos <strong>_**the spaceman**_**  
>-Honeydew <strong>_**the dwarf**_**  
>-LikeSoTotallyToby <strong>_**the hoodie kid**_**  
>-Ravs <strong>_**the pubmaster**_****

*****Special shout out to my bestie, SpiritedandLoyal. If any of you have read Reyanna's Battles, I read that all thinking everything was true. So that's where the Enderside comes from. I swear, my pen name should be FemToby, cuz I'm such a noob. But I don't have brown hair. Or brown eyes. Lol.*****

**********Another shout out, to my sister and SpiritedandLoyal, who both helped me edit this, and my bestie even rated it 9 ¾/10. (Which it's best is actually eleven on ten, cuz we're both 11s. GO SPARKLES*!**********

**PLEASE NOTE I'M MOT SHIPPING ANYTHING BUT:  
>NANOCOFFEE<br>XEPHMADIA  
>INTHELITTLEDREAM<br>ZOETHIAN  
>SJINTY<br>and any other CANNON (or almost cannon) ships. Not making anything up, okay?**

**The POV will jump around in this story, same with the person (first person, third person, etc)**

**Now for the fanfiction. Commence evil cackling that I actually can do.**

**…**

**…**

The night was black and starless, the only light coming from occasional flashes of lightning, and the cold moon.

A night suited for the action going on at the boy's Stronghold.

A war.

The boy was fighting the scientist when his Enderside attacked, leaving the boy defenceless.

The scientist came towards the boy slowly, relishing the control he had over the boy's fate.

"Now what are you going to do, Mage?" The scientist demanded. "Now that you don't have the girl protect you? Now that you can't trap me and force my into peace?"

The boy, still seized by his Enderside, looked in terror into his enemy's eyes. They were cold and malicious.

He looked for the girl, the dinosaur, anyone. They were all busy.

The melon suit man was attacking the girl, and the business man had the dinosaur at bay.

The boy looked into the scientist's ice-cold green eyes, and he knew he was about to die.

The boy would die at the hands of one of his greatest enemies.

The scientist laughed. "I paid them to give me the honour of killing you, you know. I had been torn between killing you and finishing the girl."

Rage filled the boy, hearing the scientist talk about the girl like that.

His Enderside pressed against him, harder that ever, telling him it could kill them all. And the boy almost let it.

He was backed against the wall, with the scientist closing in on him, when he had the horrible sound.

The boy knew the sound had echoed over the entire land. The Scientist stopped for a bit, chilled to the bone by the horrible cry of the mob that had been summoned.

The boy saw the neutral members of the world come flying or running towards them. The ones with flying rings or who knew science approaching battle field much faster than the ones without, such as the Pubmaster and the Poolman.

The boy didn't want them to come. They would only get hurt by the horrible creature. The … /Wither/.

The Wither first approached the Scientist, who backed against the wall next to the Boy. The Wither took aim, and blew up the area of the wall. The boy barely escaped, diving away from the blast.

The scientist didn't explode, which was good, because it would have left more to clean up. Instead, he was incapacitated, his legs paralyzed, trapped in the fire. Unless something was done, the scientist would burn to death.

"Rythian! Help!" He tried, but the boy only looked at him, his purple eyes as cold as ice.

"Like hell. In fact, burning to death is not good enough." The boy announced, an evil, horrible grin on his face. He muttered a quick enchantment, and the scientist stopped burning. On the outside.

From the inside, the boy could imagine the agonizing feeling of all the liquid in the scientist's body boiling, and expanding.

"So, Lalna. You're a scientist. What does water do when it heats up?" He asked.

The scientist, who's face was red from the heat inside him, and had sweat pouring down his face, choked out an answer.

"It expands." He told the boy, who laughed.

"Well then, if your so smart, what will happen to you body when it becomes hot enough?" The boy asked. The scientist just screamed. A horrible, brutal scream.

His eyes and fingertips went first, shortly before the rest of his body succumbed to the heat. He didn't explode, entirely, as that couldn't be said for his eyes and fingertips, he just died. Painfully. The fires faded around the corpse. The boy nodded. It was a death the scientist had earned indeed.

Then the boy turned, and saw that the battle had resumed. The melon suit man had returned to attacking the girl, with the dinosaur trying to protect her and hold off the business man.

The boy realized that the dinosaur was attacking both of them because the girl was kneeling in the middle of the ground, looking pale, her face strained.

The boy realized that the girl had summoned the Wither to protect him, and was now trying to control it.

The boy screamed in outrage at the men attacking the girl. His home. Driving the girl to this.

"Rythian?" The boy heard the Spaceman call, but he ignored it. "What the hell? Holy Shit! That's a Wither! Who…" The Spaceman stopped when he saw the battle. It wasn't much of a battle, just the business man and the melon suit man against the boy and his friends.

The boy threw himself on the melon suit man, determined to strangled him with his bare hand.

The Bartender shrieked as she saw the boy attack the melon suit man, and pulled him off her boyfriend.

"I don't care what Sjin's done to you, Rythian. You don't get to kill him." She hissed.

The boy growled, a deep, feral sound that he didn't know he could make. His violaceous eyes flashed dangerously. He turned and punched the Bartender, and she let go of him.

"Stay out of this, Minty." The boy began in his heavily accented English. "You've been hiding in the Captive Creeper every time there is a battle. You know nothing of what happens during these wars. And now you think you can judge for trying to kill Sjin? He's going to kill her. You know Zoeya. She's… not a great fighter to start with. But look at what this war has reduced her to! Sjin will kill her, unless I can stop him."

The bartender stared at the boy in shock. "Now get out of the way."The boy finished, and pushed the shocked girl out of his way, so he could resume his attack on the melon suit man.

The moment the boy was close enough, he through his arms around the melon suit man's neck. "What the hell? Rythian? I though Lalna was finishing you off!"

The boy laughed. A cold, dead laugh that scared him more than the growl from earlier. "Lalna, is that corpse over there. It was… enjoyable to watch his boil to death, caught in the fire, but not burning. No. That was my last gift to him. He wouldn't burn… but he would die. It was the fate he deserved, for what he did to Zoeya."

The melon suit man stared at the boy in horror. "You… how?"

"All I did was one simple spell. The Wither did the rest, Sjin. Lalna is dead, and I'd like to see you join him." The boy declared, the horrible smile from earlier on his face again.

The boy felt the melon suit man tense, and was suddenly struck by the man's elbow crashing into his nose. Blood flowed thickly down his face, and pain bloomed in the boy's head.

The boy swore, his voice sounding strangely nasal. Blood filled his mouth, and he spat out a globule of it.

The boy didn't release his grip on the melon suit man, and that was his mistake. Twisting around, the man showered the boy in punches.

Most of the flailing strikes missed the boy, but the one that didn't hit him in his right eye. He winced, and more pain blossomed in his face.

The melon suit man swung his leg in a wide, high circle, and his foot crashed into the boy's temple. Black danced in the boy's vision, and the melon suit man took advantage of his distaction, driving his foot into the boy;s gut.

The boy trying not the throw up from the pressure that built in his stomach, the man's foot shoving his diaphrame up, driving the wind out of him and causing bile to rise up his throat.

The melon suit man then grabbed a stick, and brougt it craching into the boy's head. His vision went dark.

When his eyes opened again, the melon suit man was gloading over his body. The girl was sobbing, believing he was dead.

Enraged, the boy swung his legs around, tripping the melon suit man, who fell, who clearly hadn't expected anattack from a dead guy.

The boy rolled towards the fallen man, tensed to strike, and wrapped his legs around the melon suit man's left one. Gripping the man's right leg, the boy threw several punches to the inside of the man's knee.

After that point, the man managed to free himself from the boy's grip, and they both scrambled to their feet, the melon suit man favouring his right leg.

The man aimed a low kick at the boy's knees, which he avoided, unfortunately leaving the boy open to another punch. The boy felt his lip split, and his mouth tasted metallic.

The boy grabbed the melon suit man's arm, and bent it at the elbow. Then the boy crashed his knee into the man's elbow, hearing the telltale pop that informed him that the man's shoulder had been disloxated.

Then the boy punched the melon suit man right between his eyes, whcich caused the man to fall. Taking advantage of his enemies bad position, the boy grabbed the man's already injured arm, and slammed his elbow down onto the san. Not very effective.

"Damn." The boy muttered, and tried something else. Using his leg to keep the melon suit man's arm straight up, the boy bent the elbow back the wrong way until the bone gave out. The man screamed in pain.

The boy hauled him up by his mangled arm, causing him to scream again.

"This. This is better than the revenge I had planned." The boy hissed to the melon suit man, his eyes flashing dangerously.

The melon suit man didn't resist this time, as the boy coiled his arms around the man's neck, choking him.

"Now, I finish this, Sjin." The boy declared, tightening his grip again.

The melon suit man let out a sob. "Minty!" He yelped. The boy fixed the bartender in place with an icy glare. She sobbed and scrambled out of the way.

"I love you, Sjin!" She yelled, and the boy felt the melon suit man tremble in his grasp. Knowing he was going to kill this man brought bile to the boy's throat. He refused to throw up. Especially since he didn't know if the enchantment on his mask that allowed food and drinks and other such thing (or mostly what he told it to), to phase right through. He was _not _fighting a battle with a Wither involved while his mask was covered in puke. Not gonna happen.

The melon suit man whimpered, but no one was able to save him. The neutrals were distracted by the Wither, and the business man was being fought by the dinosaur.

"No one can save you, Sjin." The boy whispered, tightening his grip on the melon suit man's neck again. He felt the man swallow in terror, felt him gasping for air. It sickened the boy, but also encouraged him. "Look over there, and say goodbye to Minty." The boy said, turning so that the bartender could see what he was doing to her boyfriend. She screamed, and threw herself towards the boy.

"Stop!" The boy called, tightening his grip again. The melon suit man gasped, but couldn't get any air. He panicked, clawing at the boy's arms with his good arm, tearing bloody gouges in the boy's skin, which stung, but the boy ignored them. The melon suit man continued struggling and shaking, trying to get air into his body.

When the bartender didn't stop, the boy kicked her square in the chest. It didn't kill her, but it stopped her in her tracks. "I didn't want to hurt you, Minty. But you've left me no choice."

The boy loosened his grip so that the melon suit man could get one breath of air. "Use it to say goodbye to her." The boy muttered. Tears streaming from his eyes, the man spoke. "I love you, Minty. I have loved you, I love you, and I will always love you. Even when I'm not here with you, I will love you. Minty… would you have married me?"

The Bartender sobbed, and nodded. "Yes. Yes, Sjin. I would have married you."

The boy turned around again, deciding to spare the bartender the pain of watching her love die.

The fact that he was going to kill this man still sickened him, but he continued squeezing his neck, the melon suit man's face turning blue and purple, his clawing on the boy's arms becoming for feeble.

The girl looked at the boy and gasped. "Rythian!" Her eye welled with tears. His own face was reflected in her blue eye.

It wasn't his face.

It was the face of someone who could kill without care.

Oh Notch. What had he become?

He dropped the melon suit man, disgusted in himself. The bile he'd swallowed earlier came back up his throat, and he kneeled over and threw up. He'd killed two human being now. And he'd been… satisfied to do it.

The boy looked at the man who he'd dropped. He checked for a pulse. Nothing. He'd killed the man. He looked away from the body in disgust.

He ran to the girl, and as he'd approached her, she shied away. She was… scared of him. And the boy knew it wasn't without reason. The girl had seen him kill the melon suit man, and had seen him cast the spell that had tortured the scientist before he died.

The girl must think that the boy was a monster. And she was right.

Still, the boy ran towards her, tears streaming down his face. What had he done? What had he done?

When he got to the girl, she didn't look afraid. Only terribly sad. "You killed him, Rythie. You killed him." Seeing the fragile look in her eyes, he remembered that the melon suit man would have killed the girl. His eyes grew hard again.

He put his arms around the girl, more because he needed the comfort than to comfort her. "I did it to save you, Zoeya." The girl looked more upset.

"Don't say that, Rythian! Then it's my fault!" She sobbed. "I can't take that." The boy stood, and he ran to fight the business man, not caring what the girl thought of him. There was a mad fire in his eyes and ice in his soul.

Saving his own soul meant nothing to him. The boy only knew that he would kill anyone who tried to hurt his friends. The earlier sickness of killing was gone, replaced by a need to protect his friends and a steely hard resolve. He wouldn't let his consciousness interfere this time.

As it turns out, the boy didn't need to kill the business man. The dinosaur did that. A shot to the head and the neck took care of that awful business man. He would never again hurt someone.

The boy looked back to the girl. "Zoeya! They're all dead! Dismiss the Wither!" He shouted.

"I can't! Rythian! It's stronger that me!" In that moment, the terrible creature was unleashed upon the innocents on the battle field.

Before the boy could take on the Wither, he felt a terrible explosion of pain in his left shoulder. Twisting around, he saw the hilt of a dagger protruding from it. The bartender, and at her side, the scientist'a apprentice, stood at his back.

"Cowards!" The boy roared. "You cannot even face me when you try to kill me!" Hot blood poured down his back, and the pain left his arm unable to move.

"You killed them." The apprentice said coldly.

"I did not. Lalna was dead anyways." The boy told her.

"I saw the way Lalna suffered before he died. It was your fault. I saw what you did to Sjin. Now, you'll pay for it." Lightning flashed during the apprentice's words, illuminating the ground around them. There was already too many bodies laying there, destroyed by the Wither. The pool man, the health nut, the pubmaster.

"I loved Sjin. We could have had a life together. You robbed us of that chance, you stupid Mage. Now, you'll loose yours." The bartender said, then glanced at the girl. "We weren't trying to kill you. Just get your attention. This is the real punishment."

The apprentice and the bartender then went after the girl, preparing to kill her before his very eyes.

The boy reached the apprentice first. "Stop. Stop this right now. Zoeya has done nothing to you." The apprentice scoffed at the boy's weak defence.

"That's the point Rythian. Killing you is quick. Easy. You get away from the pain. Leaving you alive, and killing her, that, _that _is a real form of revenge. You will suffer for the rest of your life."

The boy's vision went red. Again, they were after the girl. They would make the girl pay for the boy's sins. He couldn't take that.

"If you miss Lalna so much, how about you join him!" The boy hated himself for what he was about to do, but between the rage he felt towards this girl for threatening Zoeya, and the horrible voice he knew he should ignore, it was inevitable. His sword flew, and the apprentice crumpled, crimson spilling from a deep gash in her throat.

He pulled the dagger from his shoulder, vaguely remembering something about not being supposed to do that, and cast the blade away.

He turned to go after the bartender, but to his horror, her and the girl were already locked in combat.

"Minty? What are you doing?" The girl sobbed. Her and the bartender were good friends. "Rythian took the love of my life from me. Now I'm going to take his." The girl seemed to notice that the bartender meant to kill her. She gasped, and then continued fighting. The boy knew that the girl was no fighter. There was no way she'd win. So, he approached the bartender from behind, and, right hand shaking, left hand dangling uselessly at his side, stabbed the blade into the blond girl's back. She gasped, and crumpled.

"Oh… Rythian! What have we done?" The girl choked out. The boy shook his head. He wouldn't let the girl take the blame.

"You've done nothing. You defended yourself. It's me who's the monster." He boy told her, and ran off into the chaos, unable to face the girl any longer.

Before going back to the fight, the boy pulled some bandages from his pack, feeling quite faint. He realized that if he lost much more blood, he'd collapse. Now he knew why he wasn't supposed to remove things that were stabbed into his body. They helped stop the blood until he could bandage it.

He wrapped the bandages around his shoulder, , as tight as he possibly could. It helped staunch the the crimson flowing down his back, but the boy still collapsed, not unconscious, but unable to stand. He realized that the head wound had caused enough blood lose to make him binding his shoulder insignificant.

"Shit." He muttered. The hand he could lift to his face looked pale, and the world was swimming in his vision. /Don't black out, don't black out./ The boy thought to himself, realizing that if it weren't for the hardier Enderman genes in his system, he'd probably be dead already.

The girl ran up to where the boy was laying on the ground and gasped. "Rythian!" She reached down, and struggled to roll him onto his back so that she could see the wound. Her hands brushed the area were the dagger had been forced into the joint, and the boy's body spasmed involuntarily.

The girl recoiled, and the boy relaxed the best he could. He still groaned in pain when the girl managed to get him onto his stomach, revealing the blood-soaked bandage.

With fingers that trembled, the girl unwrapped the sloppy piece of cloth that was over the wound. She gasped.

"Rythian? You-you should be dead. How are you not dead? That- what was it? Anyways, it went deep enough to scratch the bone. You've damaged serval nerves. Between those facts, and the blood loss, and the head wound, you should have blacked out on bled out. Rythian, did you use a potion or something?"

The boy managed to speak. "A dagger. And, no. I didn't use a-." He would have said more, but his voice was cut off by a hiss of pain as the girl jabbed _something_ into the already damaged tissue of his arm.

"Notch dammit, Zoeya! What the hell is that?" He demanded. The girl paused, then spoke.

"I know you won't stop fighting. So, I have to stitch it up, cover it, and hope you don't die before the end of the battle."

The needle poked through his skin again, and nausea as well as pain plagued him.

Six more times, the girl pushed the needle through his skin. And six times, the boy fought the urge to howl, or throw up. Or both.

She covered the gash in his head the best she could, managing to stop the bleeding.

"Done." The girl announced. "Don't use that arm, or you'll be sorry. And you will explain how you're alive at the end of this." The boy nodded, his neck and shoulder experiencing flashes of pain every time he moved them.

Then, left arm held stiff, he returned to the battle.

The first thing the boy saw was that the Wither had turned it's attention to the Sapling Prince. The boy ran towards them, and the Sapling Prince saw his approach.

"Come to kill me as well, have you Rythian?" The boy stopped for a second before resuming his run towards the Wither.

"What do you mean, Martyn? Why would I kill you?" The boy was confused. The Sapling Prince seemed to believe that the boy was killing for the sake of killing.

The Prince looked at the boy. "I saw… everything. Everything you've done today. You killed them, seemingly in cold blood. Maybe you can explain it better than I saw with my own eyes, Rythian." The Sapling Prince's blue eyes burned the boy's purple ones. Tears stung the boy's eyes when he realized that everyone he knew, knew the beast he had become.

"I never wanted to kill Kim. Or Minty." His voice cracked. "I… Lalna… he…"

"He did what. What could merit the death you cursed him to?" The Sapling Prince accused.

"Lalna… it wasn't just me." The boy said distractedly, as he was fighting the Wither at the same time. "He… he hurt Zoeya. The nuke-"

"Really Rythian? Would Zoeya have wanted ANYONE to suffer like that?" The Sapling Prince had a point.

"No. I did that. I- I can't believe I did that now, but it felt right when I did it. And… I wasn't alone."

The Sapling Prince frowned. "Weren't alone? I watched the whole damn thing!" The Sapling Prince yelled. "How can you possibly excuse that? I watched you curse Lalna. Shit. I saw you smile as he begged for help. I saw you strangle Sjin, with Minty right behind you. I saw you kill Kim, and stab Minty. You are nothing but a monster, Rythian. I don't know how can live with yourself. How can you look in the mirror? Weren't alone. Bullshit."

The boy smiled grimly. "You don't know the half of it. Nobody does." He was, of course, referring to his second conscious, the Enderside that was constantly goading him to commit evil deeds. Darker, crueler  
>deeds. But the Sapling Prince, of course, didn't know that. "But I am NEVER alone. Not once in my miserable, shitty life."<p>

The Sapling Prince scoffed, turning away from an attack from the Wither. "Not alone. Are you telling me that you've got some /voice/ in your head telling you to curse Lalna, strangle Sjin, murder Kim, and  
>stab Minty? Right. How freaking stupid do you think I am, Rythian?"<p>

Then, in spite of the Wither attacking them, the boy found the Sapling Prince's diamond sword flying towards him. "You want to kill everyone here? Fine. Don't LIE to me about."

The Sapling Prince brought the hilt of his sword down on the boy's already injured shoulder, and he heard a sickening crunch. White-hot pain flared and his body shrieked in protest as he drew his left hand  
>out of the way. He howled, and the Sapling Prince flashed his blade towards him again.<p>

The boy knew that if he attacked the Sapling Prince, it would only prove his point. So, he only blocked the blows that would have killed him, quickly earning himself a stinging cut down his face, which was annoying, because it dripped blood into his eye, a slash down the side of his leg, and several other cuts, as well as the broken bone in his shoulder.

The cuts stung, and his arm was virtually immobile, as well as in indescribable pain, but the boy still refused to fight back. The Sapling Prince had a look of fury on his face, and didn't seem happy that the boy wasn't fighting. "To cowardly to actually fight me? What, you mad that I'm not some defenceless man you can sneak up on and kill while their back is turned?"

Knowing only one way to end this, the boy threw his sword, where it sunk into the sand beside his Base Camp. He dropped to his knees, put his right hand in the air, leaving his left hand at his side, and  
>looked at the Sapling Prince. "Just kill me and get it over with, if you have to." He said.<p>

The Sapling Prince glared at him. "Dammit, Rythian. You know I can't do that. Explain yourself. Properly." Thankfully for them, the Wither had grown bored with them and had moved on to a new target.

Gasping, the boy began. "I can't actually tell you everything. I am allowed to have my secrets, but I will tell you what you need to know. Yes, I killed Lalna and Sjin while they were defenceless, and it will haunt me till the day I die. I never wanted to hurt Minty, or Kim. But between the heat of the battle and the threats they made, not about me, but about Zoeya, I couldn't take it. Wouldn't you do the same for Kaeyi?" The Sapling Prince winced, as though stung.

"Fine. Let's get cracking." Then, the Sapling Prince froze. "Rythian. The Wither's got Toby."

The boy stopped in his tracks. "Toby?"

"Oh Shit. Rythian, the Wither's gonna kill Toby! Rythian!" The boy stared at the Sapling Prince, who's eyes were wild. "I'm not going to freaking let the damn Wither kill that kid!"

"Martyn. Keep calm. Don't do anything rash. Plan this out. What are you going to do?" The boy asked, trying to help the frantic Prince. The hoodie kid was pretty much a son to the Sapling Prince.

"Rythian. Make me a promise." The blond demanded.

"What?"

"I'll tell you after you promise." The Prince said.

"O-okay… I promise." The boy was confused, the pain making it hard to focus.

"If I die, tell Kaeyi I love her." And before the boy could move, the Sapling Prince took off towards the young boy.

"Martyn! Wait!" The boy called, but he was ignored.

For a moment, it looked like both the Hoodie kid and the Sapling Prince would escape the Wither's blast. The Hoodie kid was slammed out of the way by the force of being struck by the Sapling Prince, who had came at him with all the speed of an elf.

But that's when something went wrong. The Sapling Prince stood right in the direction of the Wither's oncoming attack, struggling against what seemed like nothing. Then the boy realized the Sapling Prince's foot was caught in a hole.

The boy took off running towards the Sapling Prince, his head and shoulder pounding with each stride. He considered teleporting, something he didn't normally do, because it forced him to colaborate with his Enderside, and that was really never a good idea. He'd done it several times, times that were as desperate as this, but each time his Enderside had nearly gotten him. Nearly taken over. Especially the time he did it to find Zoeya.

He was about to gather up his concentration, reach to the Endermagic that lay deep within him, when he heard the last thing he wanted to hear. The voice of the demonic creature that took up half his head.

_Teleport, Rythian. I dare you. Face a confrontation with me. It would be... delightful, to finally be in control of our body._

_Screw off. I really don't need your input right now. _

The boy told the voice, and realized that teleporting was out. While the boy had been depleating magic energy and normal energy, his Enderside had been storing it. There was no way for them to clash minds and for him to come out on top.

_Go on! Try._

His Enderside goaded, it's voice smooth as silk.

_But, if you are too cowardly, then at least to something about your shoulder._

The boy had been about to do just that, and help ease the agony in the joint, but he decided against it, because he wanted to prove a point.

_No_

The night sky was dark, but unfortunately for the boy, night vision was one of the mostly handy side effects of being Enderborn. He got to skip out on the creepy glowing eyes, but he could see every detail of the black night.

He wasn't going to make it. The Sapling Prince would die, and he could do nothing about it.

As Wither aimed towards the still struggling Sapling Prince, the boy squeezed his eyes shut. He heard the explosion, and could imagine what the Prince had felt in the last moments of his life.

When the boy opened his eyes again, he glanced towards the rock where the Sapling Prince had stood. It was completely annihilated. When he ran towards the remains, he realized what would have happened. Mostly, when an explosion went off, the force would blow you away from it. In this case, the rock behind him had prevented the Sapling Prince from moving backwards, meaning his body would have been torn apart by the explosion.

He felt sick again.

He found the smallest shred of a green shirt, with a hint of the lighter sapling swirl the Prince always wore.

"No." He whispered, then remembered the kid still standing in shock and horror at where the boy was standing.

He ran towards him, and the brown haired kid looked at him. The poor guy was 16, and the Sapling Prince had been the equivalent to a parent for him.

Tears were in the hoodie kid's eyes, and he was pale and sweaty. "Toby." The boy gasped out, pulling to a stop beside him. The boy wasn't an affectionate person, but he put his right arm around the kid, and felt a damp spot growing rapidly on his left shoulder where the boy in the hoodie's tears soaked into the shoulder of his cape. The boy almost screamed at the extra weight on his shoulder, until the kid in the black hoodie noticed the injury, and rapidly switched sides, muttering a muffled apology. The boy tried to shake his head, and found it to painful, so he whispered to the kid that it was fine. The boy then took the hoodie kid's left hand in his right, and got onto his knees into front of him. Tears stung his eyes as he vaguely remembered his mother doing the same for him.

"Toby. It's okay. It's okay. It's going to be okay." The kid stared at him with his liquid brown eyes. The were red and shining with tears.

"Martyn… he…he-" The kid's voice was cut off by another wracking sob, and he leaned into the boy, sobbing on his shoulder again.

"Toby. Listen. Take these Enderpearls, and throw them as FAR away from here as you can. Come back tomorrow if you can't hear the Wither. Martyn saved you. Don't-" The boy's voice cracked as he remembered the Sapling Prince's last words. "Don't waste it." The boy pressed the teal-coloured pearls into the hoodies kid's hands. The kid nodded, still crying, and drew away from the boy.

The boy, seeing that the kid was safe, ran back into the chaos he wanted to abandon.

He remembered to grab the sword he had thrown during the fight with the Sapling Prince.

He went to the girl's side, and stopped. "Zoeya. We have to stop it." The boy told her. "Too many people are dead." The girl looked at him, the blue eye he could see was filmed with tears.

"Rythian. This is all my fault. I summoned the Wither, and now, it's killing everything." The boy shook his head, but he knew the girl wouldn't believe him if he told her she was wrong.

"Zoeya. It's okay. We just have to stop it!" The girl nodded, and they charged towards the huge, towering grey mob.

Unfortunately, the Wither had been left during the boy's talk with the girl and the kid, and that had added to the death count. The Spaceman and the Owl Girl were staring in shock at the body of dwarf that laid on the ground ahead of them. The dinosaur was no where to be found.

"Goodbye, Honeydew. We- we had a good run." The spaceman was saying, and the owl girl wrapped her arms around his shoulders, trying to comfort him.

Neither one of them noticed the Wither behind them. But the boy did.

"Zoeya!" He shouted. "Help!" Thankfully, the red haired girl understood. The boy ran towards the left side of the Wither, already knowong not to try teleportation, as he could feel his Enderside grow ready to overpower him if he did. The girl went to the right side of the beast.

Running left his shoulder in terrible amounts of pain, and the girl noticed. "What did you do this time?" She demanded, noticing the awkward angle his arm was sitting at.

"Martyn and I got into a fight. He kind of, broke, something. I don't know what. It just hurts like hell." The girl rolled her eyes.

"I'll patch it up once we save Xephos and Lomadia." She promised. The boy nodded, and turned his attention back to the people standing at the body of the dwarf.

"Xephos! Lomadia! Run!" The boy shouted, and lightning crackled in the distance. Rain poured down his back and face, and the rivulets were stained red by blood.

The spaceman and the owl girl turned towards him, and saw the Wither behind them. The spaceman looked conflicted, and the boy realized what he was going to do only seconds before he did. "Xephos! No!" He shouted, his voice cracking.

No one else was going to die tonight. No more innocents would lay on the battlefield.

The spaceman looked at him, and sorrow showed in his eyes. He smiled, a weak, forced smile that sent the boy running faster towards the Wither. If he could get there before the spaceman began his plan, the boy he able to save them. His long legs helped, and he soon overtook the girl, but the spaceman was already moving.

The spaceman leaned towards the owl girl, and whispered something. She shook her head adamantly, and the spaceman pushed her out of the way and she screamed his name as he charged the creature in front of him, his diamond sword flashing murderously in the cold light of the moon. Of course, the boy could see it better than most people, but it was still a cold, dead light.

The spaceman leapt towards the Wither, as though to climb up it, but as he leapt, the Wither launched yet another exploding head. Sick to death, and no pun intended, of watching his friends be exploded, the  
>boy enchanted the head not to explode, realizing his mistake at the last moment. The head slammed into the spaceman, changing his flight path and sending him flying into a cactus, were he fell onto his stomach.<p>

Darker spots of crimson appeared on the spaceman's red shirt. He groaned involuntarily as his chest hit the ground.

The boy already knew there was no way the spaceman would live.

He realized, that with nothing left to distract the Wither, it would go after the spaceman again. The owl girl started running towards the spaceman, wailing in terror and with grief, she too must have realized that he was going to die. Unfortunately, the wailing brought the Wither's attention to the blonde.

"Not going to happen." The boy muttered, and approached the towering creature. He leapt, narrowly avoiding the explosive head the Wither threw at him.

He landed on the base of the Wither's neck, and almost fell off. His arms whirled around, and his left sparked white-hot agony as it whirled. Dark spots floated in his vision. He refused to pass out. He squeezed his eyes shut until most of the pain had past. Then he dared to open his eyes again.

The boy, when he was able to focus again, realized that if he didn't act fast, the creature would bite him in half. He slashed his sword at the beast's neck, and the head on the left fell limp. Hoping that would be enough, the boy leapt off his perch, his cape billowing as he fell from the sky. He could only hope the fall wouldn't hurt to much.

The boy hit the ground running, in spite of his shoulder, which was wrenched around from the shock if his landing, reaching the cactus where his friends were standing in no time flat. Adrenaline was coursing through his system, making him aware of everything, as though he was ADHD. He looked at the girl, who's eyes were shining with tears, then at the owl girl, who was still wailing, then finally at the man lying on the ground.

The spaceman's chest was heaving for air. Gently, the boy rolled the spaceman off his stomach, casting a spell to protect his back.

Unfortunately, the spaceman's chest was crushed. The owl girl slipped her hand into his and kept it there, with the boy and the girl keeping guard, until the rasping behind them faded into nothing, and the desperate sobs grew louder.

"Lomadia. Look at me." The girl said. "The Wither. You can still avenge him!"

The owl girl glanced at the redhead. "It's all YOUR fault." The boy stopped. The girl wouldn't be able to take that right now.

"Lomadia. It's not Zoeya's fault. She summoned the Wither, yes, but just to stop the fighting. She didn't know what would happen!" The boy all but shouted. He never shouted.

The owl girl turned to the boy. Looked him over. The boy knew that he didn't look like someone who could defend the girl right now. He looked like he should be delirious from pain.

The owl girl glared at him. "It's your fault as well, Rythian. You and your stupid revenge got us in to this whole mess." The boy's face burned, as he knew it was true, and he was thankful that the owl girl couldn't see in the dark the way he could.

"Lomadia. We can play the blame game later. For now, we have a Wither to take care of." The owl girl agreed, not happily, and the boy realized just how pale she was. She's been fighting, of course, and she'd obtained some nasty cuts.

"Oh gosh! Lomadia! Do you want me to do something about those cuts?" The girl said, effectively distracting the boy from her next actions. She whipped out a large piece of cloth, and while the boy wasn't paying attention, slipped it under his left forearm and tied it around his right shoulder. The sudden movement caused the boy to grow nauseous do to the pain, again, and it was a while before he could open his mouth without throwing up

"It's not a proper sling." The girl warned. "It should be tied around your neck, but I can't do that, because of your shoulder, so we'll have to set it as best we can, and figure something out later. You've  
>got a broken collar bone, Rythian. Trust me. You want that to heal straight."<p>

The owl girl spoke then, clearly reminding them that the girl had asked her a question. "No. Zoeya, I don't want you to tend my cuts. I'll be fine." Shaking her head, the girl turned away. "Well, let's get crackin'! I'll distract 'im, and you kill 'im!"

"Zoeya!" But the girl had already ran off. "Dammit!" The boy muttered, and ran after the girl, careful not to move his arm from its sling. The owl girl followed close behind.

"Zoeya! Move!" The boy called out to the girl, who had arrived long before the boy and the owl girl did. The girl jumped out of the way.

The boy ran to the Wither, thinking the owl girl was behind him. But the girl gasped. "Lomadia!" She shouted, and the boy turned around. The owl girl was hunched on the ground, her arms around her stomach.

"Zoeya. Go to Lomadia. I'll join you in a minute." The girl nodded, and ran towards the blonde girl laying on the ground.

The boy glanced at the creature in front of him. In spite of one head laying limply at its side, it was still a fearsome creature.

He charged the beast, not trying to injure it, just keep it away from the owl girl and the red-haired girl. He darted around, and got a couple of shots, not hard ones, but enough for the Wither to still view him as the threat.

A while later, the girl returned to his side, fresh tears shinning in her eyes. "She'd been hit by a piece of shrapnel. She bled out." The boy winced. Not another death. That left three people still alive in Tekkit-Topia.

Together, the two of them attacked the Wither, until it howled and fell to the ground, dying.

The two of them turned around, planning to leave the Wither to suffer.

The boy never noticed the Wither's last attack. But the girl did.

"RYTHIAN!" She shrieked, jumping at him, colliding with his bad shoulder. The two pieces of his collar bone were forced into each other, and another wave of excruciating pain rolled over him. He stumbled away, and fell, and he watched the explosion go off, rocketing the girl away from it.

"Zoeya! Zoeya, please. Please be okay. Oh, Zoeya, you have to be okay!" He cried, running to where the girl had fallen.

He reached her side. She was gasping, choking for air, and the boy stared at her. A thin trail of blood flowed for her mouth.

"Zoeya. It's okay. You… you're going to live." He told her, as well as himself. But they both knew he was lying. Tears streamed down his face.

_I could have prevented this_.

The beast in his head declared. Enraged, the boy shot back an answer.

_YOU, wouldn't have prevented anything. You would have joined the Wither and killed everything! Now shut the hell up and let me deal with this!_

He returned his attention to the fiery girl who lay dying in front of him. "Zoeya." He sobbed. "You can't die. Zoeya, you can't die. Zoeya, I… I love you." The admittance brought another wave of tears to his eyes.

The girl smiled weakly. "I love you too, Rythian. I was waiting for the right time to tell you."

Her breathing grew fainter, and the boy started rambling, desperate to get everything out to the girl who lay dying in front of him.

"Zoeya. I promised to tell how I'm still alive." He began, and the girl nodded. "Well… it's like this." His voice caught, revealing this secret, even to the girl he loved, was hard. "I'm not human. Not completely. My dad, he was an Enderman. I met him, once. I was thirteen. He came to stop me from going after the Queen of the End after she killed my mother."

"I'm called an Enderborn. It's harder to kill me than it should be. It…changes me, makes me unpredictable."

"Is that why your eyes are purple?" The girl asked him.

"Yes. Along with many other things…" He stopped. His Enderside screamed that he was a fool for telling her. It claimed that she wouldn't understand, and would only hate and fear him.

"Zoeya. The weirdest, worst thing about this, is that I'm never alone in my head. There's another thing in there, taunting me, goading me to let it take control, let it kill everything." His voice turned bitter when he spoke of his Enderside.

"And Zoeya…"

His voice trailed off as he looked at the dying girl.

Desperate now, he leaned towards her, smelling her sweat breath, hot on his face. She smiled deliriously, and spoke.

"How're you gonna kiss me with a mask on?" She asked, reaching feebly for him.

He would have smiled, in any other occasion. "It's enchanted. So like this." He cupped her beautiful face in his right hand, and their lips met. He felt hot and cold, and when he finally drew back, the girl's eyes were glazed. No breath slipped through her slightly parted lips.

"No." He whispered. "No. No. No. No! Zoeya, don't be dead. Zoeya, come back to me!" He sobbed. He gently picked the girl's body up, cradling it like a baby, holding it close to his chest. He carried it into the remains of the Stronghold they'd built together.

The boy didn't sleep that night. First, he got a cloth, and lovingly washed the blood and such off the girl's body. He found the purple war paint, and tenderly rubbed it back on her face, and brushed her beautiful, fiery red hair until it shone.

He closed her blue eyes, looking in to them for the last time as he did so.

All the while, tears streamed down his face, and his body was racked by horrible, desperate sobs.

When he finished, he laid the her body in the bed, sat down beside it, and cried.

He got to work on the box later.

**Sorry, I had to split this one into two chapters. Read on, brave soul.**

**~Featherflower**


	2. Chapter 2

**Toby's POV**

*****The next day*****

I hadn't slept all night. I figured Rythian would expect me to have at least shut my eyes, but every time I did, all I could see was Martyn, foot trapped, about to die.

I should have done something.

But it was too late now.

So instead of sleeping, I ran around where the pearl had teleported me to, determined to kill something.

I ran into a couple skeletons, which dropped useless stuff, as I already had several sets of arrows, and decided that mining might be more useful. After all, I now had to figure out what to do with  
>InTheLittleCorp.<p>

I didn't have any ladders, and you aren't supposed to mine straight down anyways, so I built stairs down to the bedrock. I then wandered around aimlessly, finding some redstone, and a couple diamonds. It was all good, until I found some Lapis Lazuli. Remembering Martyn's love for the blue gemstone, I broke down and cried.

I climbed out of the mineshaft, carrying to heavenly stone with me, tears still stinging my eyes, and realized that it was daylight. I couldn't hear anything, so I pulled the teal-coloured orb out of my  
>pocket. I drew back, and threw it towards Cabertown. I wondered who the new mayor was, if Ravs had been killed by a Wither.<p>

I landed about 20 meters north of the stronghold, and walked the distance, thinking nostalgically of all the times Martyn and I had journeyed around the world. I though of Kaeyi, and realized that she  
>was coming to visit in about a month.<p>

I froze. What was I going to tell her?

I was directly in front of the stronghold, on the ground where the war had been. Blood stained the sand around me, and the bodies littered the ground. I could see Lalna's body, and people I didn't know were dead. Xephos, Honeydew, Lomadia. I noticed that Zoeya wasn't laying there, and neither was Rythian, so they must have been in the castle.

I walked, heavy-hearted, up to the door of the Stronghold. I smiled at the mushroom and red matter pickaxe on the outer wall. I knew that alchemy and such didn't work anymore, so Rythian couldn't use red matter anymore, but I guessed they didn't want to change their logo.

I knocked on the door, expecting to see Zoeya open it, and was surprised to see the Mage, his face haggard, eyes puffy and bloodshot. With the red surrounding them, his purple irises seemed to glow, which was eerie.

"Hey Rythian! Where's Zoeya?" Rythian stiffened when I said the red-haired girl's name. Oh goodness. Not her too. I knew from Martyn that Rythian had killed a lot of people last night, which could be plaguing him, to me had explained the look on his face. But now… I wasn't sure.

"Rythian?" I said hesitantly, worried about angering the man in front of me. I'd heard many people speak of the Mage's temper, and I didn't want to be on the receiving end of his wrath.

"Toby." Rythian's voice was taut. Pained. He didn't look fierce, like he normally did. He looked sad. Fragile.

"W-what happened here?" I stammered, but I already knew the answer.

"After you left, the Wither got even more out of hand. Everyone that was here… died." I was stunned by the bluntness of Rythian's statement. I had expected a euphemistic phrase, that would have meant the same thing, but then I remembered Rythian wasn't one to mask the meanings of his words.

"Oh my goodness. So…" my voice trailed off as I tried not to bring up a painful subject.

The Mage glared at me. "Yes, Toby. Everyone." He whirled away from the door, his torn cloak whipping around behind him. The eyes on the back seemed luminescent, and scared me. They seemed to be Enderman eyes, but I couldn't imagine why Rythian would want those on his cloak. He hated those mobs with a burning passion that I didn't understand.

I saw a dark spot on the shoulder of his cloak, and remembered that between Kim and Martyn, Rythian'd been crytically injured. To me, it didn't look like he cared.

I followed Rythian into the castle, admiring the way he didn't seem to be affected by the afformentionned injuries, as I now remembered, he had stitches along a stab wound in his shoulder, and a broken bone somewhere in that vasinity. His arm was in a black sling, and he walked as though it wasn't there.

If I had injuries like that, I wouldn't be able to move, much less walk with the dignity the Mage always had, even when he was crying.

Rythian led the way through many different rooms. A library, a room full of gold and diamond blocks in no particular order that I decided not to ask about, a kitchen.

He turned into a room, which was very ordinary; I didn't know why Rythian brought me here.

Until I saw the bed in the corner, with something wrapped in a beautiful red silk shrine with the logo from Rythian's castle embroidered on it. I got a lump in my throat when I realized what was  
>under it. A body.<p>

Also in the room, was an urn. It was crafted by hand, mostly, out of ebony and acacia wood, and I realized that something had been done to the ebony wood to make it appears slightly purple. It too had the logo on it.

I had never know that Rythian had an artistic side, but this urn proved that he did. The woods were artfully blended together, fading into bits so thin that if I tried to cut them, they'd have broken for  
>sure. Obviously some magic was involved to make it so that Rythian could make it without the use of his left hand, but I could tell it was mostly made without magical assistance.<p>

"Oh… " my voice trailed. Seeing the shrine and the urn made it seem a lot more real to me.

Tears pricked my eyes, and I realized that Rythian's eyes had never been dry.

I looked in amazement at Rythian. "It's beautiful." I murmured.

He acknowledged my statement with a nod, possibly of gratitude, probably just so that I didn't think he was ignoring him.

The silence spread through an unnaturally long time frame, until Rythian's voice, husky and sad, said something I didn't realize was directed at me and not a nostalgic phrase he was saying to himself.

"What?" I asked, voice awkwardly loud. I was never any good at speaking quietly.

"What do you want to do for a funeral for Martyn? She's being cremated, because her and I both agreed that being embalmed and buried sound repulsive. And I believe Zoeya said something about not wanting to become a zombie." I saw the faintest hint of a smile peak through Rythian's mask, but it didn't reach his eyes.

The next statement sickened me, but I said it anyways. "Well, there just the bit of a t-shirt left, so, I guess we should bury it, but we should wait for Kaeyi. She's coming in a month."

Rythian looked pained. "That's… not quite true. I found… a body, or I guess that's what you'd call it. If you don't want to see it, I can cremate it and place it in an urn."

I felt as though I should at least see what had happened to Martyn, so I followed Rythian outside.

I took one look at the burned corpse, and almost screamed. The image was forever seared in to my brain, and was grateful that Kaeyi wouldn't have to see it. Rythian gripped my shoulder comfortingly.

"It's okay, Toby. That's not Martyn. Not anymore than the body inside is Zoeya. They're right here." Rythian tapped my chest, directly in line with my heart. "Same with everyone else who died here. They're in our hearts. It'll hurt, true, but just remember all the good times you had."

Rythian's words helped soothe the pain of seeing the body, and calmed me a little.

"So, you go back to the tower. Plan an urn. There's no point in a casket, not if we're just burning it. Kaeyi…" Rythian began, then stopped. "Unless-"

"No. Kaeyi shouldn't have to see that. We'll cremate it, and bury the urn with her in a month." I said forcibly. Rythian nodded, and shooed me away.

"Go plan the urn. I'll do this." I nodded, knees weak. I didn't want to leave, but I remembered what the mage had said. It was true. Martyn wasn't the body on the ground. Martyn was the memories that I would carry for the rest of my life.

I didn't want to go back to the room with Zoeya in it, so I picked a room at random. I could hear the fire Rythian had started crackling,and it was a comforting sound.

I knew that the urn had to have lapis on it, the lapis I had found while mining would do. I pulled out some papers and started drawing randomly, not really seeing what I was doing, my fingers numb,  
>controlled by my subconsciousness, and not my eyes.<p>

I finally sat up when I heard rustling in the entrance. I turned around, and saw Rythian standing in the door. His face was ashen, and he smelled of smoke. His hair was dusted lightly by cinders. He carried a shoe box, which was clearly full of ashes.

I dared to glance at what I had drawn. It was simple, made of oakwood, with an elaborate tree carved out of it, like a window. If windows had glass made of lapis lazuli.

Rythian walked to my shoulder, and looked at the paper on the table. I moved my hands to draw it away, suddenly self-conscious.

"No!" Rythian began. "Toby, this is incredible." He looked it over, then nodded. "Come on. I assume you have these things?" I nodded, and walked to a room full of crafting tables, anvils, and all sorts of  
>other thing.<p>

"Use whatever you need. If you need help, call me. I assume you want to do this yourself." I nodded. Rythian left the room, and once again, the right side of my brain took over my hands.

I worked well into the night, and when I was finally done, it was everything I'd imagined it would be. But I didn't feel proud. I imagined that this was how Rythian had felt about the one he had made. I wasn't sad, or happy, or proud. I was numb.

I walked outside, remembering having heard the outside door open. Rythian was sitting in a fetal position, in front of an orange, crackling fire. Gentle rain poured from the sky, and my black hoodie was soon damp from the drops.

I didn't want to approach Rythian, because I knew what was burning in the fire, and assumed he'd be fragile about it. But he noticed me, and called me over to him.

"I can see you standing there." The mage's voice was bitterly sad. "Grief hasn't made me blind. Come on." I walked to the fire, relieved to find it warmer than by the door. It was mid-September, and the air was turning fresh quickly.

Rythian was silent for a long time, before he looked at me and sighed. "The worst part wasn't that she was going to die. It was that she might die without knowing that I loved her. And even after I told her, I felt like if I had been quicker, and brave enough to admit my feelings for her, then we would have had more time together. As more than apprentice and master." I understood his regret. I felt bad for a different reason, but it made sense. I also knew that the last thing we should start doing is dwelling on regret.

"Did I ever tell you about the time I screwed up on one of our condensers? Back at mole hill?" Rythian looked at me, his eyes hollow, but shook his head and allowed me to continue.

"Well, I didn't really understand how it worked. And Martyn told me to go make some diamonds in it, and power it with some gold ingots. Well, me, being the biggest noob in Minecraftia, I completely reversed where the materials were supposed to go! And, to make matters worse, I didn't stop to make sure it was working. I came back to no diamonds, and way to much gold. And, of course, I had put all the diamonds in, instead of just one. I was still kinda new at this condensing business."

Rythian laughed at bit, amethyst eyes flickering in the dying fire. "That reminds me of something Zoeya would do." He said. I waited for him to continue, but he was silent for a while.

"She would reverse the order of red or dark matter, and stuff like that." I didn't know much about matter, but I smiled anyways.

"There was the time I first taught her to make a wand. She managed to place it on a table, which turned the table green, and then she looked at me and asked if she was a master magician now. I told her no. And then she left the wand on the table, and Teep took it!" We continued swapping stories until te early morning light, at which point I went to leave, but Rythian told me there was a spare bedroom on the main floor, where I could stay. 

**Rythian's POV**

After Toby left, I looked at the embers of the fire, which were glowing softly, and the colour reminded me of Zoeya's fiery hair. A lot of things had reminded me of her in the past day.

I listened to the sound of the raindrops hissing on the hot embers, waiting until they were completely cold before putting them in the urn that sat on the ground beside me. Every memory that came to my head was bittersweet. It helped clear my head, but it burdened my heart.

When I finally gathered up the ashes, it was noon. I was starving and exhausted. I hadn't slept in about 36 hours. My head spun. The world swam in my vision.

I stumbled into the stronghold, startling Toby, who was making a sandwich. I walked past him, not really seeing so much as absorbing.

I placed the now-full urn on the mantle of the fireplace, and went upstairs to my room. I was asleep before my head hit the pillow.

I awoke to Toby staring at me. I was still starving, my stomach cramping painfully every time I moved, but I felt a lot better.

"Toby. What time is it?" I asked, noting the dusky skies, as if an Notch had taken a paintbrush full of grey-blue paint and swiped it across the sky.

"3 o'clock." Toby's face said he hadn't finished the statement.

"Wonderful. 3 hours sleep." Toby shook his head.

"Rythian, it's three o'clock in the morning." Great. Now I felt like one if those characters in all the books, when they get knocked out. But I didn't get knocked out. I had just fallen asleep. Kind of embarrassing.

I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes, and slowly got to my feet. "Well. Three o'clock in the morning or not, I'm starving. I'm going to get some breakfast." Toby nodded, seeming a little surprised by my vigorous attitude. But in truth, I couldn't do anything now, not until sunset.

I made some pancakes, offering some to Toby, who declined, but hey. He'd eaten a sandwich yesterday afternoon. I hadn't. He'd probably eaten some supper too. Another thing that sleep had taken precedence to.

Once I ate a couple, I put the rest in the fridge, the one that Zoeya had finally convinced me to let her hook up. With science.

Once I cleaned up the kitchen, I went down to the reck room. It was what we called the basement, because Zoeya had insisted on making a room completely for relaxing. There was a chalkboard, and a TV. Hey. When I finally agreed to the science, Zoeya went all the way with it. The only room without science was our room. My room now, I guess.

I grabbed a random book off the bookshelves in the far corner of the room, and went and sat down on the pink armchair. There was a blue one too, because Zoeya had been on a he and she fix when she had made them. Mine was obviously blue, but the pink one reminded me of her. If I breathed deeply, through my nose, I could smell the scent of her hair.

I looked at the book in my hands. It was an old, beaten up book about alchemy. Pretty useless, now that I couldn't get alchemy to work, but I read it anyways.

I didn't notice Toby reading over my shoulder, and was pretty surprised when I sat up to put the book away, and my head crashed into his jaw.

"Ow! Oh, sorry Rythian." I looked at Toby and smiled.

"Not a problem." I went to put the book away, glancing out the window. The sun was up, I guessed it was about 8 o'clock.

I walked stiffly out of the reck room, resting for the amount of time that I had, it had given my sore muscles time to grow stiff and painful.

"So… Rythian, are you planning a funeral?" Toby asked tentatively. I shook my head.

"Toby, I've never been to a funeral. My mother didn't want one, I don't know if my dad is still alive; really, I don't want to start going to them, or planning them, now. I'll bury the urn at sunset." Toby didn't argue.

I wandered around aimlessly for a few hours, cleaning up the parts of the stronghold that had been destroyed, fixing the holes in the walls. After that, I climbed up the stairs to the mage tower Zoeya and I had built together.

I hid in the tower for most of the day, leaving only to eat lunch.

At about 5:45, I went down the steps again, and began to make supper. Toby seemed to expect to left to fend for himself, at least, for food, cuz he and I both had gotten used to company and weren't ready to suddenly be alone.

I fried some chicken, listening to the sound of it popping and sizzling on the pan, smelling the spicy aroma that penetrated the smell of death and decay that had began to settle permeate the air. I realized that something would have to be done about the bodies outside. They couldn't be allowed to just sit outside and rot.

About five minutes later, Toby call in the room, poked through the fridge, and pulled out a head of lettuce, some tomatoes, and some cucumbers.

He sliced the vegetables, clearly focusing on the tasks he could give himself rather than the memories of that night that I knew plagued us both, in spite of fake smiles and friendly words.

"Rythian, don't you have any bowls for putting a salad in?" Toby asked me, and I smiled. He was looking in the wrong cabinet, of course. I reached down and pulled out a largish wooden bowl. Toby blushed and took it from my hands. I went back to flipping the chicken, as they were now almost cooked and I didn't want them to burn.

At six o'clock, the chicken was done and the salad was sitting in the bowl on the table.

Toby and I ate in silence, brooding about what we should do.

Personally, I was going to take a shower, and change out of my grimy and gore-covered clothes, and get ready to bury the urn.

So, after dinner, I filled a sink full of hot soapy water, pulled out a cloth, and started doing the dishes. As per usual, I had to use a small amount of magic, as my left shoulder down was entirely useless. Toby dried the dishes, clearly expecting to have to help out with the chores. I didn't bother mentioning that we didn't generally dry of dishes, we just let them air dry. But I figured if I said that, then Toby might insist on washing, and focusing on the task I was doing helped my calm down.

After the dishes were washed, Toby managed to get up the guts to ask me the question that had obviously been bothering him all day.

"Rythian, when are you going to bury the urn?" I looked at him.

"Sunset. So now, I've got time to shower and change." I ran a hand through my hair, carefully avoiding the gash on the top. I noticed that my hair was matted with blood.

"That's kinda gross." Toby remarked. I looked at him. His hoodie had white salt stains down the front and in the armpits, and his jeans were torn at the knees. I raised my eyebrows.

"_I'm _gross, hey?" I asked teasingly.

"Okay, so am I, but you know that weird blond streak you've got? It's burgundy." I put my hands up in mock surrender.

"Okay! You win. But while I'm in the shower, you go find some presentable clothes." I handed him two more Enderpearls, grateful that I always carried them around with me.

Toby nodded and left.

Once in the shower, I stood in the torrent of hot water for longer than necessary; enjoying the way the water it worked the tension out of my tired muscles. I was burying the urn in about an hour. I needed to be able to move properly. My left shoulder I kept out of the spray, settling for wiping it off with a cloth, which still hurt like hell. My head ached too, but I didn't worry about it, as it seemed to have scabbed over. Come to think of it, I probably should be thankful that I didn't have a concussion.

I felt like a whole knew man once I got out of the shower and got some fresh garments. I wasn't wearing my usually torn chaps; instead I had on my only nice pair of slacks. I dug out a long sleeved shirt made if some sort of soft material that my shoulder could stand, that I hadn't even known I owned. I dug out a new cloak, and replaced the torn and bloody one. I did the same with my mask.

I walked down the stairs, and found Toby, hair dripping a bit, in a new hoodie and his usual jeans.

"Hey. You know when you take a shower; you're supposed to dry your hair." Of course, I wasn't really one to talk, as I hadn't done a great job of that either, but that was more to prevent ripping open the scab on the top of my head. So I had an excuse.

Toby blushed. 'I honestly did dry my hair! Mine's just longer and harder to dry."

I sighed and walked away; going to fetch the urn from where I'd left it on the mantle. Toby trailed behind me, and I realized that I wasn't really doing anything. Just digging a hole.

The thought made me remember Honeydew. And then the rest of the bodies.

I looked at Toby, and inquired what he thought we should do with the rest of the bodies. I agreed with burning and burying the neutrals who had died because of the Wither. Some of them, such as Sjin, and Lalna, and Sips, I was in favour of throwing a match at and walking away.

But Toby insisted that they could be good people too, and that we couldn't do that. So that's how we decided on making urns for _everybody._

Fun.

But first, I had to bury Zoeya. I picked a spot in the sun, but with enough shade that I could put some mushrooms around the grave. I planted a small sapling above it, and knelt in front of the grave. Toby had paid some respects and gone inside to work on the extra urns.

As I stared at the little cherry sapling, something inside me cracked, as I realized this was the end. The end of our fantastic and magical adventure. She was gone. Tears I didn't know I had left to cry gathered in my eyes, and ran down the raw skin on my face. Hoarse sobs were wrenched from within me.

I sat there, crying hopelessly, until my chest was sore from sobbing and I had no tears to cry.

**Toby's POV**

Rythian walked into the room where I was working, looking worse for wear. I wanted to tell him to go take a break, but I knew the mage wouldn't appreciate me telling him what to do. So instead, I moved over and let him start working about on some of the urns.

When we were done, there were far too many urns on the table. Some were simple, a box made of mahogany, and some were complicated, like Ravs', which was elaborately decorated in plaid, like the kilts he always wore.

So, late that night, Rythian and I were burning bodies and burying urns, dry sobs wracking our bodies as we remembered our fallen friends.

When we got to Sjin, Rythian just dropped the mahogany box into the hole he'd just dug, rather than placing it in the hole. He'd done the same for Sips and Lalna.

We obviously weren't burying the bodies on the grounds of the stronghold, but Sips, Sjin and Lalna were the farthest away from it.

I gasped, sort of surprised by Rythian's lack of respect for the dead. All of could think of to say was a joke. "That is Mahogany!"

Rythian glared at me. "I don't really cared if it the most precious substance in Minecraftia. Its contents aren't worth my respect."

It all went well after that, until we were walking back to the stronghold. Rythian was trailing behind, cleaning up the area, and collecting the tools we had used. I heard a strange buzzing noise, one that I didn't recognize for a bit. Until I'd turned around and seen the glowing eyes.

An Enderman.

I tried to scream, but no sound came out. I was going to die.

The Enderman looked at me, its eyes malicious. It buzzed again, and I wondered if it was calling for backup. I realized that even if I died, I needed to warn Rythian. Whenever the black creatures were in the area, they went after him.

"Rythian!" My voice was weak, and I could only hope he'd heard me. I didn't have a sword with me, not that it would do me any good if I did.

I heard the sound of an Enderman teleporting, and figured another one was coming. Until I saw the floating black cloak with the same eyes on it as the ones that had been staring at me earlier. Purple particles swirled around the mage, rolling off his cloak. My brain refused to believe what it saw. I backed away, and noticed that Rythian's eyes were glowing softly, and he looked…conflicted as he drove his sword into the beast.

"Rythian?" I asked, confused. Had Rythian…_teleported_? But if he didn't have his alchemy…that shouldn't be possible. And the purple particles? Those only appeared when _Enderman _teleported.

_What the hell?_

Rythian didn't look at me, and all I heard in response from him was, "Shush."

I glared at the mage. His eyes were definitely glowing now, not just seeming luminescent. He squeezed them shut, and I could _still _see the violet glow through his eyelids. They flashed open once, and they were cold and malicious, just like the Enderman's had been. Then Rythian…at least, I think it was Rythian. But who else could it be? It was definitely his body, could it be that he was possessed? I'd never heard of that, but what else could it be?

Anyways, he wrestled his eyes shut, trembling as though fighting an impossibly huge force.

"Rythian? What's-" My voice was cut off as Rythian pressed him hand against my mouth, silencing me. Panic closed in on me, and my breathing grew laboured. What was going on?

Suddenly, the mage fell to his knees, hunched over. His eyes flicked open, casting faint light on the ground, like two flashlight with amethyst bulbs.

Then he keeled completely over, and didn't sit up for quite some time.

When he did, his face had turned haggard and his breathing was weak. He tried to stand, but fell almost immediately. I raced to Rythian's side, and helped him to his feet. I'd never seen anyone look so helpless. And this was Rythian I was talking about!

**Rythian's POV**

Shit. This was one of the worst things I'd ever done. But I hadn't been willing to let Toby die. I'd seen enough death recently. But I had barely been strong enough to keep the Enderside from taking over. It almost had, too. I'd seen Toby when _it _had seen him. I'd felt the bloodlust coming from the creature. That was one of the things that had _made _me keep fighting. I knew I couldn't _stand _seeing all the people in Minecraftia like that, my thoughts squashed, trapped into a desolate corner of my mind, feeling my Enderside's hunger for death and destruction.

Toby helped me back to the castle, and I knew there would be some questions in the morning. Hopefully I wouldn't have to explain everything. I knew I wouldn't do that.

_I will win next time. I don't always have to be helpful to win you over, you know. I could take control by force._

_You've never once been helpful._

I ignored the thing for the rest of the night and tried to get some sleep.

**********30 Days Later**********

**Kaeyi's POV**

I was _so _looking forward to seeing Martyn again. And Toby, and Zoeya, and Lomadia, and Minty, and Kim, and everybody except Rythian. Rythian scared me.

I positively _bounced _all the way the Owl Island. I had worked it out with Martyn that we would meet there, see all the cute little owls, then head over to a party at the Captive Creeper After that, I'd spend my time at InTheLittleCorp. Martyn and I had been waiting for this for ages. I could never get enough time to come and visit Tekkit-Topia.

But when I got to Owl Island, I could tell something was up. It didn't look like Lomadia had been for a while. The whole place reeked of death and decay. Many of the owls looked sickly, and some were already dead. Lomadia and Nilesy were nowhere to be found.

I opened the cage doors, hoping that the owls would to better in the wild.

I got out of there as fast as I could, feeling faint. I ran straight to the Captive Creeper, figuring that Minty might have some idea as to what had happened. I dreaded to think of the scenarios that might have gone on.

But the Captive Creeper was equally abandoned, covered in cobwebs and full of mobs. I looked inside, fearing the worst, but I didn't find anything to suggest a battle, or anything like that.

I ran frantically from building to building, looking for a sign of life. Honeydew Inc., Sipsco, Castle Duncan. I was running out of options, my mind racing, full of horrible possibilities. I almost didn't want to go to InTheLittleCorp, in case it was the same.

I went anyways, traveling the long and winding path through the woods, half expecting to here Martyn yelling at Toby to go brush hi hair, or for doing something stupid.

But all I heard was the stifling sound of silence, and the occasion feral howl of a wolf.

When I got to InTheLittleCorp proper, I was horrified to find that it too, was deserted. I only had two options now. New Blackrock Stronghold or whatever they had called it, and Caber Town.

For reasons of my own, I went to Caber Town first. Ravs hadn't been around for ages, and the Testificates of the town were worked of their feet, dealing with sickness and injury and all sorts of things. Caber Town was dying out.

That left the stronghold.

When I got to the door, Toby answered it, and I almost fainted in relief. "Toby!" I gave the kid a hug. "How are you?"

He shrugged, clearly struggling with something. "Okay."

We chatted for a while, until I realized that I hadn't heard Martyn at all.

"Listen, I didn't really want to come here, on account that Rythian terrifies me…" I was cut off by the sound of an Enderman teleporting. But I was inside!

"How do I terrify you?" A voice asked from behind me. Purple Particles floated around me for a bit. I knew that no doors had been opened, and I was facing the entrance to the lobby. So that meant to one who had spoken was the thing that had teleported.

I screamed, whipping around to see who was behind me. A pair of purple eyes stared down into mine. I could tell Rythian was smiling, even through the creepy mask he always wore. His shoulders weren't quite straight, and I couldn't understand why his left one seemed hunched forward.

Toby burst out laughing. I glared at the smiling mage, my heart racing. But the question was still there. _How HAD Rythian teleported?_

"That's why you terrify me." I told Rythian, seething. My face burned from embarrassment.

The mage just laughed. "What?" He asked innocently.

"You can freaking teleport! You aren't supposed to be able to teleport! How did you teleport?"

"Magic." The mage said, raising his right hand and waggling his fingers jokingly. I noticed that his left arm didn't move.

"No. Zoeya said you guys couldn't teleport. And what about the purple stuff that floated around? And the noise?" Rythian looked cornered. He'd clearly expected to get away with the teleportation by me being clueless.

"Umm…" Rythian began, and Toby took over.

"Don't bother. I asked the same things when he first did it around me. But it was a lot creepier then." Rythian winced.

"Teleportation… very dangerous. Has nasty side effects if you're not careful. I hadn't shown Zoeya it yet. Or told her about it." He explained. That made more sense. But the noise and the particles hadn't been explained…

I decided to let it go.

"So… where's Martyn?"

Rythian glared at Toby. "You didn't tell her yet?"

"I got distracted." Toby explained.

"Got distracted?"

"Yeah…" With that, Toby burst into tears.

"Toby?" I asked, moving towards him. He drew away, sniffling, trying to compose himself.

Hopelessly, I looked at the mage. His head was bowed. "Kaeyi…while you were walking here… did you notice anything…strange?" His voice sounded forced. Pained.

"Well, do you mean the fact that all the building have been abandoned?" I asked, voice shaking. Fear clenched my heart. What had happened here while I was away?

"Yes. While you were gone…there was a war." That didn't explain anything.

"Martyn had nothing to do with the war! He thought they were a waste of time!"

Rythian winced again, and then continued. "Well, you would be right. Had a Wither not been summoned, Kaeyi, Martyn's last words before he jumped in the way of the blast to save Toby were, 'If I die, tell Kaeyi I love her.' Kaeyi, I'm so sorry. Martyn's been dead for a month.

Disbelief filled me, which was soon replaced by grief. Tears stung my eyes. After all, why would Rythian lie about this?

I stood there in shock, and then I had to sit down. I couldn't take it. I knelt down, on the floor, Toby sitting next to me, and wept, bitter tears streaming down my face.

'T-Toby… how did it happen?" I asked once I could speak through the tears.

The boy looked at me, his brown eyes sad and unfocused. "Rythian and Martyn were fighting. You'd have to ask Rythian what it was about. I thought maybe I could distract the Wither while they sorted out their differences. But it was a lot harder than I'd expected. It had me backed against a rock face far faster than I thought possible. Martyn ran at me, shoved me out of the way. He almost escaped too, but is foot got caught in a hole. The Wither threw another exploding head and-" Toby's voice choked up, but I'd gotten the idea.

"I guess there's no point in burying him then." I said, shuddering inwardly. Martyn would have been blown to pieces.

"No…Kaeyi, the body was much worse than not having one. Rythian cremated it, and I made an urn. We were waiting for you to come so we can bury it. But first, Kaeyi, there's something you should know. Or rather… see." The words were too wise for a 16 year old kid.

I followed Toby out of the stronghold, and walked back to InTheLittleCorp. Toby poked around Martyn's tent for a while, then came back out. He held a small box in his hand, and a couple of papers.

"Kaeyi…he'd been planning on proposing to you this week." He passed me the box. Tears streamed from my eyes as I looked at the ring inside. It was a simple silver band, with a single perfect opal in the middle, formed into a cloud.

I read the papers. Each one had a different idea for how to ask me to marry him. A fresh wave of tears flooded down my face.

"Let's go back to the stronghold. We… we should bury him."

When we got back, Rythian was cooking some steak, again with his left arm resting at his side. I noted that a spell seemed to be assisting him to cook.

I finally got up the guts to ask what was wrong. In response, Rythian removed his cloak and turned around. A horrible scar was left in his shoulder, and I noticed again that his arm wasn't straight.

"I got stabbed. By Kim. It disconnected several nerves, which the Testificates of Caber Town couldn't successfully reconnect. And Martyn broke my collarbone while we were fighting. It didn't heal straight, even though Zoeya told me to make sure it did."

The new information buzzed in my head, stopping at the point when he mentioned Kim, and Zoeya. I dawned on me that if they weren't around here, or in the other buildings, they must be…dead

But how could I be sure?

"So, where is everybody?" I asked, hoping for a happy answer. I didn't get one.

"We _are _everyone. Everyone still alive, that is." Rythian told me, pulling his cloak back on and turning back to the steaks. I felt sick.

"What were you and Martyn fighting about?" I asked.

"The battle led to some death, of course. Most by the Wither. But, me, I killed Sjin. And Kim. And Minty. And Martyn watched me do it." Regret pierced the mage's violet eyes.

"You _what_?" I demanded, gazing in fear at the man before me.

"It wasn't like that. Sjin, maybe. But Kim and Minty went after Zoeya. Because, even if I didn't kill Lalna, I cursed him not to burn in the fire. He boiled. From the inside out." My stomach churned.

Toby walked up behind me. "You have to remember that these are the people that hurt his family. Zoeya, Teep, they were his family. I don't know what happened to his parents, but his mom is dead. He doesn't have any siblings. All he had was Zoeya. And also, Sjin and Lalna are the ones that blew up the world." The boy whispered. "It doesn't make it better, but he didn't just kill them in cold blood." I nodded, shocked to the core.

Once we ate our meal, (even if he could be considered a murderer, Rythian cooked good steak.) We went to where Rythian and Toby had buried the others. I carried the urn the Toby had made, trying not to think of its contents. But the cold hard truth was that my boyfriend was in there. The man who, after this week, would have been my fiancé.

I looked at the other graves, almost numb. I saw that Zoeya's had a little cherry tree. I looked at Lomadia's, Minty's, Kim's, Lalna's, Xephos's, and Honeydew's…

Seeing the graves made it seem much more real.

We worked for a long time, digging a hole to put the urn in. I went and found an oak sapling to plant over the Sapling Prince's grave.

In a week, I would leave Tekkit-Topia. But I decided, that very soon, I was going to find a reason to move here. I would build a house in the woods, and visit the stronghold often. I would never forget Martyn, or any of the others that had died in the Tekkit Wars.

And one day, I managed to ask Rythian about how he'd met Zoeya. He'd gotten a melancholy look in his eyes as he began

"Let me tell you a story, about a boy, and a girl, and a land of magic and monsters..."

**So. 15, 155 words of evilness. I must congratulate you for reading it to the end. I'm very proud of the end. Anyways, a little insanity for the next chapter, then a fluff-fic. I promise. No more death. Put this out of your mind.**

**~Featherflower.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello friends! It's Featherflower here. Again. Writing yet another creepy fanfiction to (hopefully) bring some feels attacks. Maybe a little parental bonding, death, destruction… all of that fun stuff! (In case you didn't realize, that was Xephos's line! I've got one more, and then it will just have to be quotes.)**

**Again, thanks to my sister and SpiritedandLoyal, cuz some of this was still her idea. (Details about Enderborns. Not the storyline.)**

**So, I hope you enjoy my third chapter (second story) to this One-Shot/Two-Shot story.**

The first time I suffered through the evil voice plaguing my mind, I was 13. It hadn't said much, but I almost had a heart attack. Of course, at 13, you can't have a heart attack. It doesn't work that way.

My mother had sat me down, done her best to explain what was going on, but really, she wasn't the one with a creepy evil voice in her head!

"It's only to be expected, Rythian. Your father and I knew something like this would come up eventually."

I was confused. How could the father I had never met have known that I would have voices in my head?

My second thought on the matter was, was I going insane? My mother had tried to keep me away from the others my age in the village, but it hadn't worked very well. The other teens hated me. I tried my best to avoid them, not wanting to here yet again just how unwanted I was. I would always hear them whispering about me, half fearful, half mocking.

I could hear them calling me crazy, a freak, and other far worse things.

I heard them mocking old Mr. Thomson, claiming he was insane and belonged in a mental institution, and I knew for a fact that he heard voices in his head, he spoke of them often.

So if Mr. Thomson was insane, wasn't I?

My mother had insisted that my case was different. But was it really? How could the same thing be different for two people? I wanted to find out.

Maybe that's why the day after I first heard the voice; I decided to venture into the town. I didn't get out much, and when I did, I went farther out from the village, avoiding other people at all costs.

But this time, I wanted to know what happened there. Really happened, when I didn't just saunter to the store to pick up more food. I knew that in a normal family, the father would hunt, and therefore provide the family with meat, but for us anything a woman couldn't catch or make had to be bought in town.

I wandered the streets for hours, ignoring the staring folks. I wouldn't really be that interesting, if it weren't for my mask, and the eyes. Definitely not normal.

If you didn't look at my face, I was just a regular gawky teenager. I didn't have acne, which was a bonus, but I was far too tall, and all around looked like anyone else you might meet who was around my age. It wasn't like I dressed any differently, just in black chaps and a gray shirt. Of course, I did have a sword hanging at my belt, but so did ninety-five percent of all the men in town.

The first person I ran into was a boy I had met on a number of ill-fated occasions. His name was Riley, and he had black hair, brown eyes, and a mouth full of crooked teeth. He was about 5'7, and impressive height for a 13 year old, but nothing compared to the 5'11 that I currently stood at.

All around, compared to myself, he was pretty normal.

Myself, I had brown hair, with a peculiar blond streak on the left side, vibrantly purple eyes, and wore a mask for reasons I didn't quite understand.

"Riley." I said, as lightly as I could. The last thing I needed right now was I fight.

"Rythian." The boy said in a bad imitation of my voice. Wonderful, it was one of those days. I consoled myself with the fact that his nose was slightly crooked from the time I broke it in our last encounter. My mother had banned me from ever raising my fists against some one until I moved out, after the mayor of the village had escorted me, black eyed and bruised, back to my house. But it had been worth it to hear the sickening crunch of his nose breaking.

"What is it, Riley?" I asked wearily. How was I going to get out of this one if I wasn't allowed to fight?

He moved towards me, and I backed away, until suddenly my back hit a brick wall.

"I thought you knew better than to come around here, you worthless piece of shit. I figured the fact that even your own father wouldn't stick around should have been a pretty good clue that no one wants you around. The people here only put up with you because they know that you'll leave next year. Once your 14, you're old enough to move on, they'll force you out. I heard the mayor talking about it with my dad."

Rage filled me, adrenaline coursed through my system. I was ready for a fight. But I couldn't. I had already been warned that if anything like the last time happened again, the members of the counsel would have no choice but to force me and my mother out. And I couldn't do that to her, not after she'd spent 13 years building this life for us.

"Your dad talks too much."

Riley's fist suddenly flew towards my face, connecting with my nose, sending my head crashing back into the brick wall behind me. I dropped instantly to my knees. Blood poured down my face, soaking into the black cloth mask that I wore over the bottom of my face, filling my mouth with its salty-sweet taste.

I felt dizzy, and my head spun. I gagged as the blood pooled in my mouth, hot and thick, and felt pain blossom in the back of my skull.

_You're getting us both hurt, fool. Let me handle the puny boy_. Instinct told me that I didn't want anything this voice offered. I ignored it, focusing on struggling to my feet. I felt groggy and sick. Riley laughed, crouching so I could see his look of triumph. His breath was hot on my face, and smelled of rotten eggs. He clearly hadn't brushed his teeth in a while.

"So, Rythian, I've heard some amusing things about you. Like, the reason your eyes are purple. And you wear that creepy mask all day." I snorted. Right. I didn't even know why my eyes were purple. But maybe the villagers knew. They had let my mother into the village, surely she had told them something.

"They say your dad was an Enderman. Is that true, Rythian?" Shock and disbelief filled me. How could my father be an Enderman? They must have been wrong. There was no way that Endermen were close enough to humans for my father to be one! They were monsters, they killed for no reason! I wasn't a monster…was I?

_About time someone clued you in, Rythian. Your ignorance was starting to bore me. If this boy hadn't told you, then I would have._

I almost choked on the blood that was still in my mouth. I didn't answer Riley. Instead, my hand flew up into his chest, driving the breath out of him. The council could be damned. There was nothing for me in this village anyways.

He smiled at me, unsheathing a small dagger. "I'm so glad you did that, Rythian. My dad gave me this knife for taking care of mobs. I guess you'll be the first one I kill with it."

My gazed locked on the blade that Riley held in is hand. Slowly, it sunk in that this boy meant to kill me, like one might a creeper. Or a zombie. Or an Enderman.

I stood up properly, ignoring the sensation of vertigo. I looked once more at the boy, and took off running towards my mother's house, my long legs pumping as I drew away from him.

It was later than I had thought it was, and I could see the faintest glimmer of stars and the round face of the cold white moon, as well as the strange, unnatural light that always lit up the world at night, unless I didn't want it to, so like, when I was sleeping. It was a weird light, and for the first time, I wondered if it wasn't normal at all.

_Of course it isn't. Its part of the _gifts_, you could say, of having a father who's an Enderman. You acquire some of their traits._

_Of course it is. Damn._

I stormed into the house, nearly tripping over my mother's shoes. I looked at the woman sitting at the dinner table, furious that she had kept this a secret from me for so long.

"Why didn't you tell me?" I demanded, my eyes flashing dangerously. My mother looked at me in surprise, as if she didn't know what I was talking about.

"Rythian. You're late for dinner! And what happened to you? Did you get into another fight? Rythian, you promised me you wouldn't get into another fight." I realized that it was pretty obvious I'd been used as a punching bag.

"Yes, I did get into a fight. And why didn't you tell me?" My chest was heaving; I could not believe that I'd had to wait for a jerk like Riley to tell me about my dad.

"What didn't I tell you, Rythian?" I glared at her.

"Why did I have to wait for Riley to tell me about him? Didn't you think it was important for me to know the truth?" Shock creeps into her eyes as she realizes what I'm talking about.

"Rythian… I had to tell them. The council is full of alchemists. When I first came to this village, they could sense the End's magic in you, and therefore in me, because you weren't born yet. I had to tell them about your father, or they would have killed us. They still wanted to kill us! But then one of them convinced the rest that they couldn't condemn a baby, or a mother. They promised not to speak of what they heard!"

I stared at her in shock and fury. "And after you told them, once I was born, you never thought it would be important to tell me about it? Maybe you should have. You could have done a lot better of a job of it. Instead, I had to hear it from the same boy whose nose I broke 6 months ago."

My mother looked pained. "I'm so sorry, Rythian. You should never have had to go through that. But… I didn't think you were ready to know."

I exploded. "Wasn't ready? Obviously I wasn't ready! There is never a right time to tell someone their father is a monster!" The pounding in my head suddenly doubled, and my stomach churned. The floor suddenly raced towards me, and the world went black.

When I awoke, I was laying on my stomach, my head turned towards the doorway of my small bedroom. My mask was laying on the table beside me, which didn't bother me in the least. I hated wearing it and would rather just cast a glamour over my face, but they were tricky and unreliable. They were also the only bit of magic I had ever learned.

My mother was standing at the door, blocking some of the weak light that flooded through it, which of course didn't bother me. I could see perfectly if I wanted to.

"Please don't tell me the dumb shit broke my nose." I muttered. My mother sighed.

"Rythian, he didn't just break your nose. He gave you a concussion! How could he give you a concussion? Did he hit you in the back of the head with something?"

_You should have let me handle it. I would have saved us from much pain._

Realization dawned on me.

_I want nothing to do with you! You're one of them! In my head! This is pure shit._

_Excuse me; I'm not one of them. I am your Enderside, yes, not an Enderman. I'm another part of you._

_That has to be one of the worst things anyone ever told me. Second only to Riley telling me what my father was._

_You're being incredibly melodramatic about this entire thing._

_Melodramatic? I just found out my dad is an Enderman! I'm being melodramatic. Right. Do me a favour and shut up._

"Rythian?" My mother called.

"Oh, sorry, just distracted by, you know the freaking voice in my head!" I snapped. I was shocked, pissed, upset and terrified. What was going on?

"Try to ignore it. Your father-"

"I don't really give a crap about my father right now."

"-said that it would try to convince you to let it take over, which would basically let it run around as you, killing and destroying everything. And you would be powerless against it." She finished, ignoring me.

"Wonderful. Another bonus to being half Enderman. Great. What's next? Do I get to turn into one during the full moon?"

"That's a werewolf, Rythian. And you would have turned into one before if that was true."

"Well… the voice just started talking yesterday, and apparently it's been there all my life, so I figured I'd check."

"Anyways, what happened to your head?" She asked again.

I sighed. I was never going to get all my questions answered anyways, so I might as well stop asking them. Because every answer I got led to another question.

"I got backed against a wall, because you told me that I couldn't fight! He punched me in the face, and my head smashed into the bricks behind it!" I said exasperatedly.

"You didn't hurt him?" My mother asked hopefully.

I laughed without humour. "Are you kidding? I practically bruised my knuckles on his chest!" My mother sighed.

"As soon as the council gets word of this, they'll come for us. We need to leave now, Rythian."

"Why is it that if I hurt someone, it's so much bigger of a deal than if someone else had done it?" But I already knew the answer. They didn't trust me. I was dangerous.

Suddenly, I heard a loud, quick knock at the door. My mother got up to answer it, and I followed, staying where I could hear what they said, but wouldn't be seen.

I heard the door creak as it opened. My mother didn't welcome the person inside.

"What's the problem?" She asked. No one ever came to our house unless there was a problem.

"It's a matter of your son. Rythian End…." The name they called me didn't quite register in my mind, as I was distracted by the fact that it was the mayor, Mr. Dee Marcus, who was at the door.

"Please don't call him that." My mother said which made me wrack my brain. Really, I picked the worst times to get distracted.

"What else should I call him, Iris? Anyways, we're here for him. He's convicted of murder." I stopped. I hadn't killed anyone!

"My son didn't kill anyone. You're insane. He's only 13 years old!" I didn't really appreciate that my age was being used as a reason that I couldn't kill someone. I could kill someone if I damn well wanted. I just didn't want to. Yet.

"Well, Riley is dead with a sword in his chest. Mrs. Wilson said that he and your son were having a fight, and that was the last time Riley was seen alive."

"Rythian has been here all night, recovering from a concussion."

"How can you be sure? With his parentage… he could have teleported without you knowing."

I frowned._Could I teleport? Cause that would be one good thing._

_Of course you can! It's like you being able to see in the dark._

Damn. I had to admit that was pretty cool. Or, would be cool if it didn't come with other, _side effects. _Like having an Enderman for a parent.

"Rythian knows almost nothing. He was just informed about his father yesterday." My mother said matter-of-factly.

"Okay…but why is Rythian's sword the one left in the boy's chest?" My hands flew to my waist. I wasn't wearing my belt! But then it made sense. Of course I wasn't wearing my belt. I would have impaled myself on my sword if it was around my waist.

"We're here for the boy. He'll be tried, but I already know he'll be found guilty. Of murder."

I'd been on my way to my room, to check for my sword that was being considered evidence; after all, it couldn't be evidence if they had the wrong sword, when I heard that. Guilty of murder. The punishment for murder was death.

I nearly screamed. I finished getting to my room, threw on my mask; strapped my leather belt to my waist. I did notice that my sword wasn't there. I had another in the chest, but I didn't want to make a sound. I pretended that if I was silent, Mr. Marcus wouldn't know I was there.

Shit. I thought to myself. I was numb. They were going to kill me. Try me and kill me.

"You need to leave. My son is innocent." I stood, shaking. I never should have gone to the village.

"We have the right to take Rythian now, to be contained until he can be tried."

"I'll go get him."

I heard footsteps coming towards the room. My mother walked in. "Under the bed. There's a way out of the house. Take this." My mother handed me a strange looking sword. I took the hilt and nearly dropped the sword on my foot. It burned my hand! Not terribly, but enough to hurt.

"Holy crap! What the hell is that?" I asked rapidly shoving the sword into the holster on my belt, relieving my hands of the burning sensation.

"Enderbane. It's better for attacking Endermen with. I guess it's not great for you, either. But it cuts off their connection to the End. It shouldn't kill you to use it."

"Brilliant." I said, rolling under my bed. Sure enough, there was a door, painted to resemble the floor, in the left corner. Dust filled the stifling air that surrounded me.

I pulled the door open, and started down the ladder that was in the shaft beneath it, my mother close behind; escaping the only life I'd ever known, leaving everything behind.

******Linebreak of the Zoethian I wish was in this story, but it's a backstory. SHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIPSHIP! Ship! I miss you I need you I love you! Okay, I'm done. ******

To my surprise, there was a house at the end of the long, narrow tunnel that ran along underneath the surface world.

"Why is this here?" I asked, glancing around the house.

"Rythian, I did know SOMETHING was going to happen. So I prepared for it." Wonderful. My mother knew that I would get kicked out of the village. Or tried for murder. I hadn't killed anybody!

"Rythian…are you okay? You look sick!" I tried to frown, but it hurt. Stupid broken nose.

"Of course I don't look great! I'm still trying to recover from having my head smashed into a brick wall! And I just got convicted of murder! I think I'm allowed to feel a little sick!" I declared exasperatedly.

"Oh…sorry!" My mother rummaged through a chest that just happened to be next to the stove. I realized I was standing in a kitchen.

"Here!" She handed me a vial full of, something. It was a deep, blood red liquid. A wooden cork was stuck in the top of the vial.

"And just _what _the hell is this?" I demanded, looking at the thick liquid suspiciously.

"A healing potion. It might taste bitter, but it'll help you feel better. Physically. I've got nothing to help you emotionally." I looked at the vial, then back at my mother.

"Did you make this?" I asked. She nodded.

"I'll start teaching you, soon. But for now, drink the potion, and go to bed. It'll make you tired." I was still suspicious of the red stuff, but I uncorked it anyway and drank it down. Immediately, the pounding in my head ceased, but I felt woozy.

"Strong stuff!" I remarked, heading towards what I hoped was a bedroom. There was a bed, so it was close enough. I curled up on my side and fell asleep.

When I awoke, I felt a lot better. Hesitantly, I reached a hand up and touched my nose. No pain. That was a relief. I walked into the kitchen, and my mother was already sitting at the table, a piece of toast in her hand. I grabbed a piece from the plate in the middle of the table, and sat down.

"Hello, Rythian." Something about the way she said it made me shiver. She put a certain… power, to my name. As though she could see my soul by uttering it. I'd never heard my mother sound anything like that.

"Hey." I muttered. She looked sharply at me, her green eyes hard.

"None of that today, Rythian. I'm going to teach you magic today. You'll need to be professional about it." I went to roll my eyes, but a look from my mother made me freeze halfway through.

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry. Continue." I muttered, already frustrated. I was not in the mood for a formal discussion right now.

"You're impossible today. Anyways, eat your toast, brush your teeth, and your hair, and get changed. There are some clothes in your closet. Then, meet me in the third room down that hall." My mother pointed down a badly lit, narrow hall. I nodded, and she left.

After I was done changing, I went to the room. It would have been dark, but of course it wasn't. Green and blue and purple and every other colour imaginable glowed around the room, not enough to light it, but enough to make it very ominous. I decided I'd rather not be able to see it properly, and instantly, the room's only lights were the strange colours.

"The first thing you should know is that magic always has to have an energy source. For you, if required, you can draw upon the End's magic, but I wouldn't recommend that unless you have to. Of course, you still have a higher source of energy within you then most people would."

She went on to explain how a Klein Star would work, then declared that she wasn't going to teach me that yet. She wouldn't start with Alchemy. She would start with Thaumonomicon.

I left that room, my mind buzzing, late that evening. I was ravenous, as we hadn't eaten lunch. I grabbed a bowl of soup out of the fridge, not wanting to think about how long it had likely been there, heated it up, and sat down at the table to eat.

My mother went outside, saying she was going to gather materials for tomorrow. I nodded, and continued eating. Until I heard the scream.

I sat up so fast the soup sloshed all over me, I cursed, already running to the door, my mother had screamed and something had her and I wasn't going to let it take her.

When I got outside, my mother had been caught by one of them and it had its night black talons sunk into her arm and she was still screaming, she was telling me to go back into the house but I wasn't going to listen.

The thing looked at me with its purple eyes that I knew were so like mine, and I could have sworn I saw it curl its lip in distaste. Then it teleported away, and I figured out where it was taking her. To the End.

_I cannot believe I'm actually talking to you, intentionally, but you clearly know more about this then me, and I need to get to the End. Fast._

_Ah, you wish to teleport there? I'm glad to finally show you what happens when you do that._

The world went black, and a strange sensation flowed over me, like I was being twisted and turned, folded up, all while heading forward.

Then I felt it attack.

_There are few things that give me this much opportunity to take control. Teleportation is one of them._

It was pressing me away, forcing my consciousness out of my own head, in to a small corner, where I knew I would sit until I could reclaim control, unless I could beat it.

I thought of my mother, and that if I lost, then she would surely be killed. I pushed back, stabilizing myself with that thought, until the thing was back in its corner, where all it could do was tempt me with its words.

The air was stiflingly hot, and dead. There was no breath of air. It felt as though it was pressing down on me. I could tell it was dark, from the way there were no shadows in my vision, as though my surroundings themselves were there own light source. Purple eyes glowed everywhere. Yep! This was the End, or I was a creeper.

My mother was bound and gagged in a corner, with an Enderman that I assumed was the same one that caught her guarding it. Cautiously, I drew the sword that hung at my side, thankful that I had remembered to put my belt on this morning. Again, it stung my hand to hold it.

A gust of wind ruffled my hair and I looked up in surprise. A huge black shape flew overhead, landing in front of me. Purple eyes stared into mine. It was a dragon. The Enderdragon. The Queen of the End.

_**Hello, Rythian. I have long sssearched for a way to lure you here, and now I have found one.**_

_Leave my mother alone. She is not a part of this! _I told the queen angrily, looking again and my mother, shackled and trapped. Her right eye was bruised and puffy, and the creature's talons had left angry red lines in her arms, and they bled sluggishly.

_**The boy hasss come to bargain for hisss mother, perhapsss? To bad. I have both of you here now, and neither of you will leave here after tonight. You are here ssso your father can redeem himssself. I do not take kindly to traitorsss, but if he can kill you both, then he will be forgiven.**_

What? Redemption? Until now, I'd assumed my father was dead! And what was this about killing us?

An Enderman, the one guarding my mother, stepped forward, disapproval and regret piercing his gaze.

_**Are you ready to redeem yourssself?**_

_**Yes.**_

I realized that if the queen was asking this Enderman about redemption that meant… this was my father.

_**Good. Firssst, I want your ssson chained at my feet.**_

The thing approached me, and I gripped my sword tighter. My knuckles turned white. Cold sweat trickled down my spine. Manacles appeared on the floor next to me. No way was this thing going to chain me and make me watch it kill my mother. Not going to happen.

_**Don't fight, Rythian, and this will end soon. Resist me, and your torture will last much longer.**_

Something about the way he'd said my name. It was cold and flat. Not the way my mother said it. Not the way a parent should say it.

He used my distraction to slap the manacles around my wrists. I swung my sword towards him, but he moved out of the way. My swing carried to much force, and I had swung too far, so my sword was wrenched out of my hand, where it clattered a few feet away. At least I knew nothing would happen to it. Nothing here could touch that blade.

The Enderman approached my mother and I knew he was about to kill her and I screamed and fought against the chains and the queen tried to quiet me but then it was all over and my mother fell limp to the ground, blood pouring from a gaping hole in her chest and my screams turn to sobs.

_He's going to kill us, fool. Let me fight him. I could win._

_So could I, and won't start killing everyone after that point._

I stared in shock at my father, who I now knew I had been right about, he was a monster. I guess that even after I knew what he was, I'd thought he'd still care about me. After all, he had fallen in love with my mother!

My mother, who was now a corpse, lying on the ground, and I was join her, very soon, if I didn't do something. I almost panicked.

_**Come with me, boy. The queen does not wish to witness your demise. And grab your sword. She cannot have you killed for the sake of having you killed. So, you have to be armed.**_

He freed my hands, and I stood, shaking, and walked towards my sword, sticking it through my belt. The creature escorted me from the room.

_**Listen, boy. I will let you get away this time, Do not think to go after me, or the queen, because you mean nothing to me. You are a waste. I **_**will **_**kill you , next time.**_

_If I'm such a waste, why not just kill me now? If I mean nothing to you? I will go after the queen. And I hope, when she respawns, you're the first thing the kills. _

I walked away from the thing and it teleported away. I had wanted to kill it, but I couldn't bring myself to do so. It was my father. And, unlike it, I couldn't kill family. Yet.

I walked back to where the queen stood. She looked at me in surprise, like I was science experiment with an unexpected result.

_**Ssso, the little hero hasss survived. I mussst say, I am sssurprised. I expected more from your father. But alasss, I mussst deal with you myssself.**_

Terror filled me. Why had I thought I, a thirteen-year old boy with a voice in his head, could take on a full-sized dragon?

_Because you're suicidal? But I'm not, so if you're going to get yourself killed, please just give me control._

_Not going to happen._

The queen launched herself into the air, and swooped at my head. I ducked, avoiding her flashing claws. I scrambled to get my sword out of my belt.

She swooped at my head again and this time she connected, and pain flashed in me as her talons raked through my hair, I spun, and swung my sword at her belly. The queen roared in pain. She swooped again, and I jumped, plunging my sword hilt-deep in her leg. She howled, shaking her leg, trying to fling me off. I hung on until the sword slipped free. I was flung across the room, smacking into a wall. Purple blood covered my sword and hand, making them slick. "Yuck." I muttered, grateful that at least my blood was a normal colour.

The queen approached me, licking her lips, her front left leg shaky, still oozing purple fluid, and she lunged towards me. I rolled, slashing towards her shoulder. Her teeth grazed my leg, and fiery pain flashed up it.

I limped away, and prepared myself for the queen's next strike. As she lunged, I ducked under her, hoping to rake her throat and belly, but she darted away, slashing her talons at my stomach. Four red lines appeared where her claws had cut me.

Desperation filled me. I had to finish this, fast, or else I'd pass out from blood loss and pain. I charged the queen, who reared up, and at the last second, I jumped, sinking my sword into her throat. Amethyst-colour blood soaked my shirt. The queen crashed to the ground, her body twisting and shaking. I held on, kept my sword in place, until she stopped thrashing. She looked at me, hate filling her eyes.

_**You have not ssseen the lassst of me, boy. I will come back and kill you, Rythian Enderborn. **_Then she died, her body turning into nothing but smoke. I lost my grip on my sword, and it crashed to the ground.

Rythian Enderborn. It was a name I knew I would have to carry for the rest of my life. I picked up my sword and left the End, and set out into the word, a 13 year old kid, trying to survive. I stopped at the refuge house that we had used. It had been destroyed. The only thing left was a note and a cloak. The note read:

_Rythian Enderborn. My son is dead. Because of you. He gave me this note; to give to you when I knew the time was right. I haven't read it. You are responsible for my son's death, and I will find you, and kill you._

_Rythian,_

_So, what's it like being charged with murder? Are you confused? Scared? In case you haven't figured this out, I killed myself, to frame you. But I dare you to try and prove that. This could, after all, be forgery. I hope you enjoy rotting in hell, Rythian Enderborn._

I don't know why, but I put the cloak on. It had a hood, but other than that, was more like a cape. On the back, a pair of purple eyes glowed. Enderman eyes. It suited who I was quite well.

Rythian Enderborn.

**Rythian Enderborn. LOL! So… Next up, a little fluff! Happy fluff, that is. The Zoethian that was not in this story will be in the next one. How was this one? It wasn't as long as the other one, obviously. Just 5, 750 words. But not bad, if I do say so myself. This one I just randomly thought of out of the blue.**

**Until next time, avoid high school cheerleaders and brown mushrooms!**

**~Featherflower**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4, story 3**

**Why helllllo there! This story: Some well deserved fluff. Song belongs to the Monkees, it's from the album **_**The Birds, the Bees, and the Monkees**_**. It's called Daydream Believer. It's a miracle I used it and it's not by Area 11 or Thirty Seconds to Mars. Any 11s or Echelon out there?**

"So… are we going mining, or what?" Rythian jumped at the sound of Zoey's voice. He'd been daydreaming, something he didn't usually indulge in. It left him to open to his Enderside.

But the weather had been perfect, and the new stronghold was coming along nicely, and Rythian couldn't remember the last time he'd been in such a good mood.

"No-" He began sarcastically. "We're going to Duncan's castle to steal all his-"

"MUSHROOMS!" The red-haired girl exclaimed, her blue eye shining. Her smile lit up the room, at least in his eyes, and brought chills to the back if his neck.

Rythian smiled. "Right. You got your pick?" He asked, and the red haired girl glared at him.

"We're going mining. Gee, Rythian. Do I have a pick?" He laughed. It was sort of fun picking on her, because she'd get all pissed off, but she looked really silly when she tried to be mad at him.

"Well, then let's go!" I declared, heading towards the mineshaft. The day was hot and humid, and my mask stuck uncomfortably to my face. "Ick." I muttered, hoping silently that the mineshafts would be cooler.

Two words. They weren't. The mineshafts were probably _worse _than the open air. It was still hot, still humid, and worse, it was dead air. Absolutely no hint of a breeze. Today was going to be a _long _day. I sweated all the way down to the bedrock, with Zoey giggling and nattering the whole way down.

Once we were at the base of the mineshaft, Zoey said that she had forgotten something. The cooler full of drinks and food. Brilliant. Of all the things to forget, she chose that one. So, I walked, slowly, back into the Stronghold, found the cooler, and hauled it down the mineshaft.

When I got back to the bottom, I was already hungry. So, I grabbed a sandwich and bit into it, Zoey coming to sit next to me.

"Nothing but cobblestone, _everywhere_!" She exclaimed.

"Seriously? Well then, lets go that way," I began, pointing to direction at random, "because why not?" Zoey nodded, and I finished the last bit of my sandwich. Then we stood and headed off in that direction.

My pick connected with the stone, again and again, and I couldn't help but sing a little tune.

_"__Oh, I could hide, 'neath the wings, of a bluebird as she sings, the six o'clock alarm, would never ring. But it rings, and I rise, wipe the sleep out of my eyes. My shavin' razor's cold and it stings!" _Let me add, I can't really sing.

Then Zoeya joined in, and we sang, barely able to get the words out through laughter.

_"__You once, thought of me, as a white knight on a steed. Now you know how happy I can be. Oh, and our good times start and end, without a dollar one to spend. But how much, baby, do we really need?"_

We soon couldn't sing anymore, we were laughing to hard. "We rock at this!" I joked, referring to the fact that we didn't know half the lines.

"I know right." Zoey agreed, still laughing.

We continued mining after that point, Zoey talking about the chores we needed to still get done.

"The mooshrooms need to be milked, or souped? Would you say milked, or souped? Anyways, the dogs need to be fed, same with Ringo the sheep." I just smiled. I was still enormously grateful that she'd had a life stone when the nuke went off, or it would have taken her from me. I was grateful for that everyday.

I still found nothing. No diamonds, copper, silver, iron, gold or even coal. Just cobblestone and gravel. Pure crap.

"Ugh." Zoey declared. Her red hair was plastered to her forehead. She looked how I felt, which meant I probably looked like that. Her forehead shone, and her face was almost as red as her hair. She was beautiful.

"That was a total waste. If you disagree, look me in the eye and tell me that." She declared.

I stared into her eyes, stepping closer to her, so that our foreheads touched. My neck was bent, so I was looking down at her. Sometimes being tall sucked. "It wasn't a total waste. It gave me time enough to get the courage to do this." My mask was enchanted; I already knew it wouldn't affect my next actions. I put my arms around her waist, and pressed my lips hesitantly to hers. My toes curled. She stiffened for a moment, and I jumped back, my face flushing brighter red than it already had been.

"Can we just, um, forget that ever happened?" I asked quickly, terrified that I'd done something wrong. I was such an idiot. How did I even know that Zoey felt that way?

She smiled at me coyly. "No!" She declared, wrapping her arms around my neck, pressing her lips against mine this time.

When she pulled back, I was grinning like an idiot. "Nope! Definitely not a waste." She grabbed the cooler, and pulled out some drinks. Zoey handed me one, and we sat in the middle of the tunnel, drink our sodas, smiling.

"So, how long have you wanted to do that for?" She asked. "I'm just curious."

"Ever since we spoke over Mushnet. I tried to tell you that, but the computer exploded."

"What?" Zoey demanded.

"When we had that conversation, the computer overloaded and exploded before I could send you my last message."

"Oh my gosh, Rythian!" She leaned against my shoulder, and still smiling. She pressed her lips to my ear, and whispered, "I love you, Rythian."

"I love you too, Zoeya Proasheck. I've missed you, I need you, and I love you."

And our lips brushed again.

Right then, it didn't matter that we hadn't found anything. It didn't matter that it was blisteringly hot outside. All that mattered was that I was there, and she was there, and we were together.

When they came up from the mines, they were holding hands and laughing. Teep looked at us like we were insane, but really, who cared?

I cooked dinner that night, making both tofu and real burgers. Teep looked distrustfully at the fake meat, and I laughed.

"I know. It scares me too. But she likes it." He nodded, and settled for just eating a regular burger and not once looking at Zoey while she ate the tofu.

Later that night, we set up a campfire, in spite of the heat, and toasted marshmallows until the break of dawn was visible.

Definitely not a waste.

_Cheer up sleepy Jean_

_Oh what can it mean?_

_To a, daydream believer_

_And a, homecoming queen._

**This was probably the hardest thing I've ever wrote, to be honest. I can write psychological battles against someone's own consciousness, *cough* Rythian, *cough*, but I can't really write fluff. Funny how that works. Maybe you think this was good, though. I personally think it's okay. Not great, though. I've read better.**

**Until next time, remember to make lots chocolate chip cookies. **_**Blue **_**chocolate cookies. And drink chocolate milk!**

**~Featherflower**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5; story 4**

**A Broken Mind**

**The marks humans leave are too often scars.  
>-John Green<strong>

**Hello everybody! I'm Featherflower, also know as… HAHA! Who thought I  
>was actually going to put my name? No… I'm just stealing Martyn's<br>line. So, did you guys hear about KaeyiDream? I was really excited, because they said nothing was wrong and released her, but now she's back in the hospital!**

**Okay. This is complicated. You guys read the Tekkit War first, and my backstory, **_**and **_**my ****fluff-fic. But**** this was actually my first Blackrock story. It's a songfic based on The Legendary Sannin, by Area 11. You already know that I'm a HUGE eleven, and a lot of their songs are perfect for Zoethian!**

*****Line breaks mean the lines of the song no longer apply, but I haven't used the next line yet. *****

**********I may or may not have used a fair amount of insanity in this story, and it's not me who's insane. (At least, not that I'm talking about right now.) But you could tell that by the title, couldn't you? **************

**Live in the fire, die in the flame  
><strong>  
>Between his Enderside exploiting every possible weakness in his already half-mad sanity and the darkness of his memories, it was no wonder Rythian could rarely get any sleep. Every night, long after Zoeya was snoring; he tossed and turned, half-conscious, wavering on the line of sleep and insomnia. Just like tonight. He lay, half-awake, paralyzed by the horror of the past.<p>

The bed was far too hot, and Rythian felt stifled and somewhat sick. His upper lip was damp, and his clothes and mask were sticky and wet. He sighed, and rolled over onto his back, deciding against removing his mask.

Once he was as comfortable as he thought he'd get, he shut his eyes, but flashes of colours and words and emotions forced him to open them again, gasping for breath, terrified of what those seconds had shown him.

He wanted to scream. He wanted to cry. He wanted to do something, _anything_, to escape the clutches of insanity that his Enderside so often left him in.

Instead, he took a shuddering breath, glanced around the room, and forced himself to close his eyes and attempt to reach the clutches if sleep again.

His memories took the place of dreams in his fractured world.

First, he remembered the nuke.

This was quite normal. Before he could ever fall asleep, he was  
>usually plagued by similar thoughts.<p>

_The air was cold, and the rain soaked into his clothes-_

No. He refused to go back to the time when the nuke had gone off, destroying Blackrock Stronghold and nearly killing Zoeya. If it hadn't been for the life stone... no. Rythian didn't want to think about it.

But how, he always wondered, could it be that his fiery, beautiful apprentice- no, she was more than that, had been maimed by a fiery nuke's explosion?

_The Earth-shattering explosion, the waves of debris that had rolled over him-_

_No_, he wanted to shriek. _Not this again!_

"Fire is the only power I mastered!" She had said. Yet mastery of fire couldn't have saved her from a nuke's explosion at close range.

_You should have been there. You should have died next to her, instead of hiding from the outcome, which you knew was inevitable.  
><em>  
>The blackest parts of his mind agreed with the cackling voice. He'd wanted to trust Zoeya, but deep in his mind, he suspected that he'd always known the nuke would go off. Or at least, that's what his Enderside told him he'd know.<p>

_Finding Zoeya in the lake, seeing the damage the nuke had done to the  
>beautiful, strong, brave girl<em>.

He rolled onto his side and covered his face with the blanket as tear streamed from his violet eyes. His Enderside said nothing, but he felt it there, agreeing with his feelings of hopelessness. He would never escape the torturous nights, no more than Zoeya could escape having been maimed by the-

_Hopelessness closed in as he searched for her, tears rolling down his face, just as they were now, calling her name into the jagged crater that used to be the home they'd built together. _In his memories, he saw the bits of their past life floating in the water within the crater, and lying abandoned throughout the pit.

His throat felt dry, and he opened the chest next to his bed and pulled out a jug of water.

"Rythian?" Zoeya muttered, clearly awoken from the sound of the chest.

"It's okay Zoeya. Go back to sleep." He told her, but he didn't sound convincing. He glanced around. The bed was soaked in sweat, as was his hair. He tried to picture what Zoeya was seeing right now. A mussed up and sweaty bed, himself, sweaty and shivering, his mask partly askew, but not enough to reveal what was hidden beneath, purple eyes, wild and crazy, with dark bags underneath them and streaks from the tears he had cried. They betrayed him, revealing his lost sleep, and they showed the effects of the battle going on in his mind.

Wincing, Rythian smiled. "I'm okay, Zoeya. I promise."

She let the matter drop, and rolled over to sleep again. Rythian did the same. But he was still plagued.

**Keep us alive and give us a name**

Next, the terrifying nights of wait came back to him. After he had found Zoeya, his struggles to keep her alive. He had spent many sleepless nights, just like tonight, fearing he'd done something wrong, while horrible voice had whispered on the edge of his consciousness… whispering of how he'd failed her, and other things, far worse, that would have driven him into retreat in the farthest corners of his mind his love for Zoeya had been any less potent.

He had almost lost it. He'd almost gone crazy. He'd also; later on, let his defenses fall. His worst mistake. Once he'd stopped repelling against insanity, the forces came back, stronger than ever. He was sure that Zoeya had noticed.

**Alive in the shadows of what we became**

Remembering how he had thought he'd hated her, never even speaking her name, when really, through it all, his feelings for her had only become stronger, the memories of her cutting his defenses like a piece of glass.

He had never hated her. He'd lied to himself, ignoring the pain, trying to blame her for everything.

He'd become a monster. He'd been so focused on his damned revenge; he might as well have just given his Enderside complete control.

And what had it all been about? Science. Yes, Rythian didn't trust science, but it hadn't been worth hating Zoeya about.

**Keep us alive and let us reclaim  
><strong>  
>Struggling to reclaim control of the situation, he remembered the day he'd told her he loved her. But it didn't help. He remembered how the computer had exploded, just like the nuke, and a sob escaped his shattered control. He was determined not to let Zoeya know what was going on, again. To his relief, she didn't stir.<p>

He then realized that if the computer had blown up, she had likely not seen his last message.

Which explained why she had never reacted to him telling her things like, 'you know how I feel about you.'

Because she didn't.

He rolled onto his front, grateful for the pillow to muffle his scream of anguish.

Zoeya still didn't stir, and Rythian's thoughts just grew more troubling. More painful.

Slowly, he stood and left the room. He walked into the basement of he temporary base camp, where they'd been so long that they might as well call it the Base Camp. It wasn't like they were going to return to the hellhole that remained of Blackrock Stronghold.

He got to the basement, and sat down on a chair and realized that he should change. He had no chance of sleeping in a tearstained mask and sweaty clothing. So he went back up the stairs and replaced his mask, as well as grabbed some new clothes.

He felt better in dry clothing, but it didn't completely take away his ill feelings, of course.

This time, he didn't even close his eyes before the attack came

**We were three and now we are one, Stand with me, watch what we've  
>become, Torn apart by desire and war, United we stand, divided we<br>FALL!**

Teep, Zoeya and himself. Torn apart through fighting and betrayal. How could it have happened? Rythian blamed the separation on himself, and the nuke's explosion on the separation. All the time, everything was his fault. Every single damn time.

"Every time." He muttered. His temper never let anything pass. The room blurred in his gaze, chairs, chests and other such things they kept in the rec room fuzzing in his vision. He smiled weakly, remembering how Zoeya had insisted that they have a room where they could just relax. But then the memories pressed against him, and he could only close his eyes and wait for it to pass.

He hugged his legs against his chest, curling into a fetal position, and pressed his face to his knees, like a child might when they were upset.

Ambition had seemed to prove more important than friendship and love.

They had separated, and the next moment, Rythian's world had been thrown into chaos.

**Lost in the darkness, refusing to see  
><strong>  
>The way he had adamantly refused to understand anything other than<br>his way. The way his pride got in the way, and resulted in endless conflict and loss, even to those closest to him. He was sobbing uncontrollably, and was glad Zoeya wasn't here. She would be concerned, and would ask him what was wrong, and he couldn't tell her. He needed to be the Rythian she knew. Cold, dark, and emotionless. Not the kind of person who would hide in the basement, sobbing.

**Blind to the things that we didn't believe**

He'd been blind to her, and to her needs, seeing only his own selfish purpose.

Nothing had mattered to him more than his revenge, and he'd rejected any other matters that he hasn't especially liked.

He'd fought with her, almost yelled, as he never yelled, and in the end, she'd left. Leaving him alone again, to grow darker, crueler.

After she'd left, he'd stopped caring about anything except a fight. He'd destroyed her lab, and pretended she was a distraction. A _distraction_.

He ran back upstairs to try to sleep again. The bed was still damp, but it had cooled now. Glancing at Zoeya, he checked that she was still asleep. Sure enough, she was snoring softly. Rythian rolled onto his side, and closed his eyes. He got a few moments of peaceful sleep.

******************LINEBREAK OF KITTENS!******************

Rythian awoke from his sleep, feeling only slightly better. Light was filtering in through the small window on the far side of the room. Zoeya was still snoring. He sighed, still tired. But there was stuff that needed to be done, and he told himself he needed to get ready to do it.

He put on his Thaumonomicon armour, and made some dark coffee. Ravs was better at making beverages, but he was busy in Caber town. So he made do with his own.

With a mug of dark coffee and a potion of healing, (he had SUCH a headache), and went to the mine. He wanted to look for more materials. Pretty much anything was useful, because alchemy didn't work.

Before he escaped, Zoeya called him.

"Rythian?"

He sighed. He'd hoped to escape to the mines and save Zoeya's questioning for later. But he obligingly turned around and looked at the red haired girl.

"Yes?" The pain that he felt to be forced into answering difficult questions must have shown in his eyes, because Zoeya just turned away.

"Never mind."

Sighing with relief, Rythian continued on his way into the mines, only to be interrupted.

Again.

"Wait! Rythian, are you going mining?" Zoeya was smiling. Obviously, she wanted to come as well. His eyes scanned the room, and he saw nothing to give him an excuse not to let Zoeya come. Aside from the fact that he might have a nervous breakdown at any point.

But he couldn't tell Zoeya that. She shouldn't have to worry about him. Let her think that life was perfect. With Sjin and Lalna having agreed to peace, no matter how small the amount of trust Rythian had in that agreement, and life almost back to what it had been like in Blackrock stronghold, Zoeya was as happy and spunky as she had been before the nuke.

So, seeing no excuses he could tell Zoeya, he told her that yes, he was going mining.

**Watching alone as, you turned to leave**

As he had thought, Zoeya asked to come, and he nodded. They walked along the twisting, random path of the mineshaft in silence. The only sound was the echoey sound of their footfalls.

As soon as possible, he split off from the tunnel, going in the opposite direction than Zoeya needed to, as she was after some lapis or something, and he needed whatever he could find. The fiery girl looked a little upset that he was abandoning her at the first opportunity, but the hurt remained only in her eyes. She smiled sadly, and Rythian could tell she was upset that he wouldn't tell her what was wrong. Rythian regretted it too, but he knew that he couldn't worry her.

So he let her be hurt.

_Better she hates me than knows me_. He though to himself.

_She'll wind up hating you, you know. She'll leave, and you'll be left to my influence again. Let's see how well you hold up this time.  
><em>  
>His Enderside told him, ruthlessly hunting out a weakness in his subconscious.<p>

_Shut up._ He told it, but his heart wasn't in it. He knew the horrible voice in his mind was right, and he could do nothing about it.

Yet again, he felt an urge to curl up and cry. That didn't seem like him. Besides, curling into a ball would be surrendering. Rythian didn't like surrendering. Not to Sjin, not to Lalna, not to that stupid Enderside, and not to himself.

What a weird statement.

Shaking his head, Rythian continued on his way down the mine shaft, deciding to look for diamonds. They were always useful. Zoeya was probably off searching for copper and tin and other sciency stuff.

Whatever.

He continued on his way, searching for diamonds, until well into the evening, skipping lunch. A few mobs attacked him, but they only helped him relieve the tension in his shoulders. He returned to the Base Camp, and Zoeya had made some supper. Rythian wanted to tell her that he wasn't hungry, but the look in her eyes said she wasn't going to let him escape so easily this time. He sighed, and sat down.

"Rythian?" Zoeya sounded precautions, as though she thought asking him her questions would upset him.

"Zoeya. If you really have to ask, then do. I can't guaranty I'll answer, but ask if you have to." His eyes still reflected pain and sufferance, but Zoeya took a deep breath and asked anyways.

"Last night. You woke me up, but it wasn't just that. You looked… haunted. Rythian, what's wrong?"

Rythian sighed. He really didn't want to answer the girl. "Just… a bad dream. About the nuke. That's all." He didn't convince himself, but he convinced Zoeya. She bounced away, going to grab a plate full of the stir-fry that she had prepared. Rythian grabbed one as well. He ate the meal, and then cleared his dishes off the table.

Filling the sink full of very hot water, he poured some dish soap into the sink, and began scrubbing the greasy pans the Zoeya had used to cook the stir fry.

After the dishes were cleaned, Rythian grabbed at sword and went out on patrol, knowing that Zoeya wouldn't follow him out to kill mobs.

He ran about, searching for something to sink his sword into something. Anything.

Rythian's memories burned in the back of his mind, and he struggled to ignore them.

He really didn't want to remember anything, and they weren't bad this time. He could ignore them. Zoeya leaving him, his shock at discovering that she and the dinosaur hadn't returned to Blackrock.

**Becoming a martyr for prophecy**

But then the fact that after that, Zoeya must have decided that she needed to make it up to him. Of something. She'd been a martyr for the fate that always found him.

He'd always known the queen would hurt him, as she twists the fates of men to hurt him and ruin his life. He should have guessed she would use Lalna and Zoeya to do so. To try to break him. Open him up to the ruthless clutches of his terrible Enderside. _Or to kill him._

He closed off that side of his brain, focusing only on his sword and the mobs that were roaming around.

**In the mirror, I see the snake's eyes**

But he knew he was lying to himself. _Not lying… just avoiding the truth_! He realized the Zoeya had a good point. No one really lied to him. They just didn't tell him the truth.

And really, who was he to talk about that?

He kept secrets just the same way that she did. Secrets that would possibly hurt her the same way that her secret had hurt him. He was half monster, half man. Didn't that make him worse than anything else that was around? He wasn't just a common mob. He could think like a person, he had emotions like a person, but one mistake, and he could become a feral beast. People trusted him, and he let them, even with the foreboding possibility that he would destroy them all.

And no one knew anything at all.

Definitely not an Enderman in disguise.

He sort of was.

_Come on. Think. You are useless. A crossbreed. It would be more natural for me to be in control. I wouldn't always try to get us killed over the girl!_

Rage filled Rythian.

_Perhaps you misunderstand, but I love her. I would gladly give my life to save hers.  
><em>

Shaking off as much of the ill feelings that he could, Rythian continued on his way. He ran into an Enderman, and picked up a distinct feeling of anxiety from it.

_Can't fail…punishments…torture…_

He shook it off, figuring that it was just insane. Coming near this Stronghold, his stronghold, it had to be insane. There was no way that any sane Enderman would come alone to his stronghold…unless it was following orders.  
><em><br>I wondered when you would figure that out. I don't necessarily want to die. Maybe you should prepare yourself for Her wrath. The last time it was this strong, we were 13. Of course, you could let me take care of it…_  
><em><br>No. I can handle the queen. I have before, and Zoeya can help me. I don't need you to!_

His Enderside quieted down.

"Great. The damn Queen of the End is coming. Again. What else is new?" But as he said it, flashes of memories, so old he'd almost forgotten, but at the same time they were burned into his mind.

His mother, caught in the Enderman's grasp as it teleported to the End. The first time Rythian had ever teleported. Seeing his mother, shackled and beaten. Seeing the Enderman he knew was his father kill his mother. His battle with the queen. The fact that his mother's death was _still_ not avenged.

Rythian pulled himself from the horrifying memories, tears pricking his eyes as he remembered his mother. He didn't want to remember her. Or his dad. Especially his dad. He had nothing good to say about the Enderman.

**Luck runs out with the roll of the dice  
><strong>  
><em>I wouldn't be too confident. You may still fail. Better to let me take over.<em>

_No!_

Fed up and tired, Rythian returned to The Temporary Base Camp, or, as others called it, the Second Blackrock Stronghold. He supposed it did look like Blackrock.

Zoeya was waiting for him in their bedroom. "Hey good lookin'! What's cookin'?" She asked, smiling. Rythian forced a smile.

"I don't know, what did you make?" The red head frowned.

"Actually, I did make some cookies… but I was more talking about the fact that you look really antsy."

"Well… Zoeya, you remember how the farm got torched, back at our first Blackrock Stronghold? I told you the Queen of the End, the Enderdragon, had came and attacked us? She's coming back." Zoeya looked at him, blue eye wide, with a fierce look in it.

"The Enderbabe is back to hurt my farm animals again! Do I really have to teach her a lesson? Who does she think she is?" Rythian sighed.

"She's the Queen of the End. I think that's enough of a title for her not to care." Zoeya nodded slowly.

"So when is she coming?"

Rythian waited for the voice in his head to tell him, but it just piped up indignantly.

_Hey! You think I'm working for the Queen? I may not like you, but we are stuck in this together. If you go, I go too._

_I think that is the only intelligent statement you've ever made._

_Hey! I'm plenty smarter than you! Again, I'm not going to get myself  
>killed by the Queen of the End!<br>_  
><em>I'm not getting myself killed. I'll be completely fine, but I'm glad you care.<em>

_What? I never said I cared about your safety!_ His Enderside spluttered.

Rythian almost laughed out loud, which would have been a mistake, as Zoeya was still ranting about the Queen of the End having no right to come terrorize the animals.

"Are you smiling, Rythian? What's so funny?" She demanded anyways.

"Nothing. Just that you couldn't pay me enough to be the Enderdragon right now."

Preparations began the next day. Many glorious days were spent where Rythian was so tired from training Zoeya and collecting materials, he didn't have the energy to dream.

Until exactly two weeks from then.

_**Ssso, Rythian Enderborn, I have prepared myssself, again. I will come for your sssoul. Thisss time, you will be weakened.**_

_It was you!_ Realization dawned on him. She had planned this to weaken him, make him so unstable he would lose their fight. Stupid sneaky bitch.

_**Of courssse it wasss me. I have taken your greatessst strength, the girl, and your feelingsss for her, and made them a weaknesssss. You will watch the girl fall, and fall alongssside her.**_  
><em><br>Maybe you haven't learned this yet, but you never threaten family. Never._

_**Ah, but I can. I have the powersss…**_

He realized, to late, that he should open his eyes and go without sleep tomorrow. But sickness suddenly plagued him, and his head swam. Vicious images filled his head, and he sobbed as he saw his mother's body, and Zoeya's, and everyone else he'd ever cared about, watching them die over and over again.

** Zoeya**

I heard gentle sobs, coming from beside me, and sat up in surprise. It had been weeks since the last night like this, and panic gripped my heart. What was happening to Rythian? He was never like this! He barely ever showed emotion, never mind cried!

But the man that I could never figure out had thrown another curve ball.

I looked at the form beside me. Rythian was curled into a ball, a corner of the pale blue blanket held over his head by one arm. And he was crying.

"Rythian! Rythian! Can you hear me? Rythian, wake up! Rythian, what's wrong? Rythian?" I whispered, my voice eventually rising out of desperation. "Rythian?"

He came back slowly, his sobs quieting, and then slowly beginning to stir.

"Rythian? What was wrong?" I asked. He glanced at me, his peculiarly amethyst eyes looking shattered, like glass.

"The queen. She's coming. Tonight. We need to prepare ourselves." He didn't answer my question, as per usual. I was used to that. Rythian never had a straight answer. Ever.

"Wait, what?" I asked. "The Queen is coming tonight?" We weren't even close to ready! My arm still needed updating and formatting, I still needed to work on swordplay, in case I ran out of chocolate milk, which I still needed to make more of.

"We need to get ready. I'll go find cocoa beans, you work on your arm. Make some Thaumonomicon armour. New stuff. Don't wear the old, in case it breaks." The tautness of his voice made me realize this was more of a threat then he let on.

"Rythian… you've beaten the Queen before, right? We can do this… right?"

"Yes." Rythian didn't convince me. I knew what he didn't say, We were likely doomed. Our luck had ran out.

**Torn apart by desire and war  
><strong>  
>I set to figuring out the mechanics of the arm attachments. I wanted to add some more options, like the different variations of lasers. But I didn't quite know how. So I did a little searching on Mushnet while a mage wasted his time and talents collecting cocoa beans so I could be useful. Again, I was useless without extra work. Just like with the magic. It didn't matter whether I used magic or science, I was just a burden.<p>

Rythian came back, just as I was finishing the installation of the last few wires. Teep stood guard on a hill, watching carefully for the queen, a sword in his hand, as a bow would be useless. I could only hope that the same wouldn't be true for a laser.

The twang of a bow, the signal Teep and I had agreed on, rang out. Rythian and I raced out of the castle, completely decked out in new equipment. After all, there was no sense in saving materials if we were just going to die!

Teep was completely surrounded by the black figures. He was fighting considerably well, for a dinosaur, but I knew his luck wouldn't last.

"Quickly Rythian! We have to save our dinosaur!" Rythian charged towards the creatures, quickly overtaking me, his cape-like cloak billowing out behind him.

I didn't notice the thing at first. It was almost invisible, midnight-black on midnight-black. Its powerful wings churned the air, alerting me of its presence only seconds before it landed in front of me.

"Who are you," I began, addressing the black form in front of me, "And what are you doing here?"

_**Ah, let me give you some light.**_ The creature's violet eyes glowed. _**I am the Queen of the End, and I will be your dessstruction.  
><strong>_  
>The thing spoke in my mind, like I could hear what it was thinking. I stared at it. "You're… the Queen? The Enderdragon?"<p>

_**Yesss, little girl. Now prepare to be annihilated**_.

I would have screamed, and then fired lasers until I hit something, but that wasn't required. Rythian ran in front if me, effectively distracting the Queen.

_**Ssso, Rythian Enderborn. You wissshhh to die firssst? I will dessstroy you!**_

_Take a number. Line forms to the left._

Rythian's voice sounded like the Queen's. The only difference was the tone. The queen's had more force, Rythian's was deadly calm. It rang in my head. Why was that? Why could he talk like the Queen? That made no sense!

The Queen hissed, a bit like a creeper. _**Your father will take care of you.**_ She told Rythian.

_Oh, he's here too? Good! I figured you would have killed him. After all, he let me escape the first time.  
><em>  
>"Hold up! Time out! Explain some things to the girl who has no idea what you're talking about!" I shouted. Rythian looked at me like he'd forgotten I was there.<p>

"Oh. Sorry, Zoeya. Weird thing is, I actually can't explain." I frowned. He could never explain.

_**You**_ _**have not told the girl, Enderborn? You have not admitted your crimesss?**_

_How have I committed any crimes? I never asked to be born!_

What was going on? Rythian's dad? Rythian's dad was alive? His being born being a crime? Whaa?

_**But you were, Enderborn.**_

_Please, don't call me that. My name's Rythian. Just Rythian_.

_**Why should I, as Enderborn ssseemsss to annoy you?**_

_Could we not get into this right now?_

_**Embarrasssssed of your bloodlinesss, are you? Is that how thisss worksss?  
><strong>_  
><em>I hate to agree with you, but yes.<em>

Parentage? Bloodlines?

"Rythian, what does she mean by Enderborn?"

"It's just my last name." Rythian told me.

_**And ssspeciesss. The queen added. Crosssssbreed.**_

_I, am __**not **__a crossbreed._

_**But you are, Enderborn. And you know it.**_

Rythian glared at the dragon. But what she said… about his species, him being a crossbreed, was she implying that Rythian wasn't human?

"Okay… what about the voices? In my head? You and the dragon?" I asked.

_**It is a trait, related to the End**_. The queen declared. I frowned.

"It's nothing. We'll get into this once we kick some dragon ass." Rythian said out loud, as well as in his head. It sounded like an echo.

The Enderdragon snarled at him. _**I would not be ssso confident, Enderborn-  
><strong>_  
><em>For the last time, do not call me that.<em>

_**-you are already weakened.**_

_Not as much as you wish I was_. But pain and sufferance showed in Rythian's form. His shoulders were hunched, his stance weak. What the heck had happened last night?

_**Oh, really? Are you sure, Ender-**_

_I swear to Notch. Do not call me that. And yes. I'm sure. Come at me._

I braced myself, thankful I had gotten my arm operable. So I was ready to kick some butt! Hooray!

But the queen completely ignored me, flying and jumping at Rythian, who ducked and slashed at her wings. Even the Enderman ignored me, instead attacking our dinosaur.

Rythian didn't seem to need my help, so I went to the Dino. Teep was slashing his emerald sword like mad, Enderman buzzing and hissing around him. I fired my laser experimentally. It hit an Enderman, and, YES! Down it went. I could officially say that lasers affected Enderman.

I ran around, firing the lasers at random, depleting chocolate milk a lot faster then I thought I would. But hey, at least I was helping. Helping was important.

"_Zoeya!_" I heard Rythian shout, and whipped around. One of the black creatures was standing behind me, poised to strike. I mowed it down, using the last of my chocolate milk in the process.

"Oh, no!" I muttered, drawing the Thaumonomicon sword Rythian had thankfully insisted I carry. As I did so, I heard a guttural scream of pain. I dared glance at Rythian.

He was on his stomach, face down, in a pool of blood. His back was a bloody mess. But it rose and fell as he drew in deep, shuddering breaths. I could only hope that the tears in his flesh weren't causing arterial bleeding. Of course, they were.

An Enderman stood over him, and as I watched, Rythian sat up and forced his arms to work, swinging the sword at the creatures legs. It fell to the mage's level.

_This, _He began, _Is for my mother. _And Rythian drove his sword into the thing's chest, and pulled it back out. He stabbed the creature until it stopped moving. Then he passed out.

**United we FALL**

Teep escaped from the Enderman to distract the queen, and I ran to Rythian's side. Tearing off his cape, I found it far to cut up to be any use. So I used mine, securing the red fabric around his back, hoping that it would staunch the blood.

When that was done, I turned around, and found that Teep was NOT looking good. He was turning sluggish, his blows not as strong as they used to be. Cuts oozed slowly all over the dinosaur, and burns were clearly visible on his green flesh.

I ran to him, but before I got there, the queen unleashed another bought of fire, the flames licking over stone and… and Teep.

"NO!" I yelled, running towards the dragon. But of course, it was too late. Teep was nothing but a charbroiled husk.

My sword flashed as I approached the queen. She hissed.

_**Are you sssure you wissshhh to fight for the boy you know nothing about? He hasss not told you what you need to know. Hisss sssecretsss. You cannot trussst the Enderborn.**_

**So summon me now, I want you to know**

"I WILL fight you, because, no matter what, Rythian is my friend. And I will fight for my friends. It doesn't matter what secrets he's kept." Anger swelled in my chest. Why wouldn't I fight the dragon who had killed Teep and critically injured Rythian?

The dragon laughed. I fought the urge to swear.

"Now, miss Queen of the End, if you would kindly DIE, that would be appreciated." My hands shook, the sword blurring in my gaze. I was no good at swordplay.

_**Do not fight a battle you cannot win, Zoeya Proasssheck.**_

"I'm not! You are! The last thing you should ever do before fighting someone, is_ Piss them off_." I declared, testing the sword's weight. It was relatively heavy, but not to the point that I couldn't use it.

_**You think to defeat me with a common blade? I am ssstrong enough to fight off the Enderborn's Enderbane tonight.**_

I glanced at Rythian's sword, which was still grasped in his hand. Sure enough, it was made of a different material.

"I though alchemy didn't work!" I said, naturally assuming that the blade was magical.

_**It doesssn't, but Rythian'sss kind can always make that blade. It doesssn't matter if it wouldn't be posssssible for most people. It isss for him.**_

That made absolutely no sense, but seen as how Rythian was bleeding out while I wasted time, I didnt ask what she meant. Instead, I swung the sword experimentally. The queen hissed, and lunged towards me. I jumped out of the way, terrified.

_**Die well, little girl. **_The queen told me.

"After you!" I shouted, jumping as she lunged again. She blew flames in my direction, and I jumped out of the way. I was fireproof, but I'd still gotten burned by the nuke, so I didn't want to test it.

**I've got your back, wherever you go**

I knew that I had to win, and fast. I had to have Rythian's back. I had to be the last line of defense. And, in this case, I had to save Rythian from bleeding to death.

The queen lunged, and her teeth grazed my arm. Furious, I slashed at her face, tearing a deep, jagged line in her nose. She howled, and I ducked under her, slashing at her throat. Her claws flashed, and hot pain seared my chest, but I continued sliding, standing up to hack and slash at her throat and chest.

I barely got out from under her before she collapsed on me. She hissed, and tried to talk to me again, but all I saw before I finally tried and succeed to block it was,

_**Rythian Enderborn is-**_

I can't say I wasn't curious, but I decided that if I was ever going to know, then Rythian would have to tell me himself. I didn't want to hear it from the queen.

I reached where Rythian had fallen, and was relieved to see that he was still breathing, though it was faint. I attempted to pick him up to carry him, ignoring his groan of pain, but found him too heavy for me to carry back to the base camp. I would have to go get supplies, and wait for him to be well enough to walk.

I returned to where he was laying, carrying some bandages, and them realized this was going to be difficult, as he was either unconscious or very close to, and I had to wrap the bandages around his chest.

It was slow work, but I got it done, and managed to get him to lean on me, walking back to the base camp. He was far to pale, and once we got to the tent, he collapsed, as though a spell had given him the strength to get exactly where he needed to be, and nothing more.

**The look in your eyes, I understand you**

And even without talking to him, I eventually understood somethings I never thought I would. I didn't know Rythian's past, but I knew it had something to do with the queen. I didn't know what had happened to him, but I knew, that, in spite of his cold front that he often put up, he needed support just like the rest of us. I understood that he really wasn't that much different than the rest of us.****

**'Cause we are in deadlock and nothing breaks through**

**Rythian.**

_What? Queen. Zoeya, Teep. Pain, the smell of blood..._

****_What happened?_

_You don't know? You just about got us killed while fighting the queen, like I thought you would!_

_I did, didn't I? Oh, Notch, what happened? The Queen? I am dead? No, unless I went to hell, you wouldn't be here and I wouldn't be in pain._

_I resent that statement, as much as I feel the same._

_Good. I don't really give a crap._

Then the pain took over and Rythian's thoughts faded back to pain and nothingness. He was at war, and in deadlock, with his own body. Part of him wanted to fight. Live through the pain. Stand up. Help Zoeya, if she was still alive. The other part of him wanted to give up, stop fighting the huge, crashing wave of blackness, and curl into the stillness of death.

_Zoeya. Is she okay?_

_How should I know? Why should I care?_

_I really hate you, you know that, right?_

_Why? Because I don't care about the girl the way you do? I might be in your head, but that doesn't mean I'm the same as you!_

_And I am thankful for that silver lining. Because if you were like me, then I would be like you._

_Ouch._

_Good. And by the way. If you didn't want me to die, why did you start taunting me when I was being attacked?_

_Because I'm your Enderside. I take advantage of your weaknesses._

_Wonderful._

**Zoeya**

_**14 days/2 week post-attack**_

_He still hasn't woken up. The first few days, I wasn't __surprised.__ After all, he lost a lot of blood while I was fighting the Enderdragon. But now, 14 days later, he's still unconscious. Occasionally, he speaks, which terrifies me as well as __reassures__ me. Sometimes it's a phrase, other times, he just repeats names. Mostly mine, which makes me cry. I'm scared that he'll die, and he'll never know that I love him. More then life itself. I didn't notice for a while. The tingly feeling wasn't Ringo. It was Rythian. Being around _him _caused the feeling, not Ringo._

_**18 days post-attack.**_

_I've almost given up hope that Rythian will ever recover. He hasn't spoken in days, and he's running a fever. Just when I thought the infection from the queen's claws was gone, it came back again. I'm worried about blood poisoning. The cuts are too close to his heart for that kind of infection._

**You know all the things that they'll never learn**

_**23 days post-attack**_

_I know I shouldn't give up, and I won't. But his fever still hasn't broken, and his back is worse, not better. I'm absolutely terrified that I'll do something wrong, and kill him instead of help him._

_**25 days post-attack**_

_I have almost absolutely given up on him ever recovering. He's dehydrated, and my only thought is to go and get Lalna to help. This healing science is beyond me. It's so much worse then what I normally deal with. But I don't know if Lalna __**will**__ help. What if his grudge against Rythian runs to deep for him to agree?_

_**26 days post-attack**_

_Did Rythian feel this helpless while I was recovering? Probably. But I was only out for 3 days, shortly after we got to the hospital. He's been out for almost a month now. My only real option is to beg a favour from Lalna._

_**27 days post-attack.**_

_I'm going to ask Lalna to help me. I'll leave early tomorrow morning. I can only hope that nothing has happened to Lalna's castle, and that I can still find it._

Zoeya put the pen down and fell asleep to the sound of infrequent, gasping breaths beside her.

The next day, she set out towards Castle journey was long, almost too long for her to risk going. But she did.

"Lalna!" She cried briskly.

"Zoeya?" His voice was harsh and cold.

"C-can I come in? I need your help."

"I don't know. Aren't you back with Rythian now?"

"Yes... that's part of the problem." Lalna sighed, and the door opened. The scientist stood in the doorway. His white coat's buttons were in the wrong holes, so one collar was higher than the other.

"This had better not be a trap, Zoeya. I really don't have time for a trap." In order or this to be a trap, Rythian would have to be awake. Tears sprung to my eyes. I started to cry, right there, on Lalna's doorstep.

"Oh, Notch. I'm sorry. Zoeya, what's wrong? Come in." He stepped aside and I stumbled through the door.

"It's Rythian."

"Oh, Notch, did he hurt you? Do you need somewhere to stay?" I shook my head.

"Lalna, we got attacked by the Enderdragon."

"Zoeya, is he-"

"No. He's not dead. But he's in a coma. He's been in a coma for four weeks now."

"Okay...so what do you need?"

"I need you to help me heal him. Scientifically. Alchemy isn't working lately, and I know Rythian will never forgive me for this, but it's my only chance."

"You ask a big favour here. I don't know... Rythian's tried to kill me before."

"And you tried to kill him, and your nuke blew me up. And Lalna, what if it was Kim?" Lalna looked at me.

"...I'll just be a minute."

_30 days post-attack_

_Lalna helped a lot, and Rythian is in a stable condition. No more blood-poisoning, and his fever broke late last night. He still hasn't woken up. I don't know why. There shouldn't be anything wrong with him!_

**And we've seen so much, that they'll never see**

_34 days post-attack_

_You would think I would be ready for anything now. But I wasn't ready for the fact that even after Lalna helped, there would be no reaction. Rythian still hasn't moved or spoken. I told Lalna not to remove the mask Rythian wears, and he agreed. I still don't know why he wears it, but I feel like if I'm going to find out, it should be because Rythian told me. Maybe he just likes wearing masks!_

**And we are so strong, more than they can be**

_36 days post-attack_

_I know Rythian needs me to be strong. I keep the stronghold organized. I buried the dinosaur. I tried to keep my head about this whole thing. I tried to be strong enough to deal with this, an I am, but I still cry. I can't help it. I know there is nothing I can do for him right now. But it doesn't make doing nothing any easier. In fact, it makes it harder. Knowing I can't do anything is awful._

**A hero to them, a legend to me, a legend to me**

_37 days post-attack_

_He's still unconscious and I'm getting desperate again. Is there an injury I can't see? One that could be causing this? Or-_

I sat up, hearing a raspy, weak-sounding voice. A voice that had begun to fade, like a legend in my mind. I voice I'd given up on ever hearing again. A voice that to me, was like the voice of a hero coming home. I glanced over and saw the speaker's violet eyes. My heart soared.

"**Zoeya?"**

**You guys, I've only really watched the Blackrock Chronicles, and so if you want to review with your favourite greeting thing, that would be great. I've obviously done Rythian's and Martyn's, 'cause those are the only 2 I know. Then SpiritedandLoyal told me the one from HatFilms and from Lewis.**

**To Spirit: Did you catch the quote this time? It's still Hecate!**

**To Krystal-Glass: Blue chocolate chip cookies are amazing!**

**To Rangersan: I know I'm brilliant. Thanks for embracing it. Lol!**

**Until next time, don't push snow golems in the water, and READ THE BLOOD OF OLYMPUS! *Fangirls* (I finished it the day I got it. I CANNOT BELIEVE IT'S OVER!)**

**~Featherflower**


	6. Chapter 6

**Weddings are fun. Thanks to the following artists for the following songs! I laughed a little too hard writing this… But it was fun!**

**(As said by SpiritedandLoyal) A crap-ton of YouTuber's, organized by Vareide- Minecraft is Just Awesome- Parody of- The World is Just Awesome**

**Gummy Bear ABCs. I don't know where that's from, but my little sister taught me it. Thanks!**

**Dan Bull- Kicky Kicky Flow**

**Baby it's Cold Outside (No artist here, it's a Christmas carol!)**

**Michael Jackson (The Jackson Five) - Rockin' Robin**

**Rascal Flatts- Backwards**

**yogscastRYTHIAN- Sjin and Duncan are Going to Die**

**Area 11- Minecraft Christmas**

**Savage Garden- So Beautiful**

**Owl City- It's Always a Good Time**

I know I surprised myself the night I got up the guts to ask her to marry me. I like to think I surprised her as well.

The ring was simple, just a silver band with a mushroom on it. But she seemed to like it.

And now, I stood in a little, uncomfortable in my suit, feeling claustrophobic, with Ravs, the master of ceremonies, laughing at me, as I waited for the wedding to start.

I was a nervous wreck. I hadn't even been sure about this when I'd asked her 6 months ago. What if I was just putting her in more danger by marrying her?

But Zoey was in the other room, with Lomadia, and I was going to be at the front of the hall in about 5 minutes.

Besides. It wasn't like I didn't want to marry her. I loved her. I just didn't want endanger her by doing so.

"Rythian! Are you done pacing yet? Because we need to go! And aren't you going to take your mask off for your own wedding?" Ravs asked.

"Ravs, it's amazing that I'm wearing a suit. And I'm not wearing armour. The mask stays." He nodded and we walked out the room. Zoey and I didn't have a big wedding. A few people were sitting in the seats, and I tried to seem dignified. My heart was beating like drum. I was sure that they could hear it over the music.

Ravs leaned over to whisper in my ear. "You're supposed to be excited, not terrified! It's your wedding, not a church confession!" I nodded. Ravs didn't know why I was so terrified, but Zoey did. I had told her night I'd proposed to her, to give her the chance to back out. I couldn't put her life in danger without at least warning her about it. Even after telling her, I still felt horrible. Until she told me to snap out it and that it was her choice. Then I had stopped feeling bad. Until now.

The music swelled, though I don't know how I heard it over my own heart, and Zoey walked out. She was beautiful, as always.

I didn't really notice much until she was standing in front of me. Her good blue eye shone, the other covered by the ever-present green view screen. Her eye had been slightly damaged when the nuke exploded, and now I had to look really hard to see both her beautiful blue eyes. Her veil was a fine white curtain, which she pulled away from her face. Her red hair was artfully twisted into a bun, probably by Lomadia. A wisp of it had escape and framed her face.

I stumbled through the vows, messing them up at least twice. I think Ravs was trying not to laugh at me by the end. Same with Zoey.

**Zoey's POV**

Rythian was a nervous wreck. I was too, and before I had came into the main room of the hall, I must have smoothed my gown about 50 times until Lom finally told me I was driving her crazy.

But now, in the front of the hall, I was rolling through, and Rythian was stuttering like he had a new mouth. I found that enormously funny, but didn't laugh at him. Probably because it would have sounded unnaturally loud in the almost silent church.

"I do. Now calm down!" The last part was a whisper. I slipped the ring on his finger, its pair already glinting on mine.

"I hereby pronounce you husband and wife. You may now kiss the bride!" Ravs announced, grinning from ear to ear, but I barely saw him. All I really saw was Rythian. He relaxed visibly before kissing me.

"Glad that's over?" I muttered as we signed the paper that basically meant the exact same thing that we had just promised each other, just more professional.

"I'd tell you how glad, but you'd likely be offended." He told me. I smiled, remembering Rythian's aversion to ceremonies.

"You got a speech planned? The reception's a lot bigger than the wedding! You'd better be ready to talk in front of a large group!" He paled.

"I have to write a speech?"

"You have a couple hours to do that."

"Or get really, really drunk, and wing it!" He suggested.

"Write a speech. If you get too drunk, I'm not kissing you good morning tomorrow."

"I plan on being so hungover; I probably won't even wake up tomorrow. That's why we don't leave for our honeymoon until two days from now. Ravs is the bartender for the reception, remember? He might give you Zero, but mine will be like, straight whiskey, and you know it."

"Straight whiskey's disgusting. Even Ravs wouldn't do that."

I put my last signature as Zoeya Proasheck on the paper, and stepped away. Rythian backed up as well. Everybody cheered.

Rythian seemed to be in a hurry to get out of the spotlight. "I don't like being the center of attention." He whispered, causing me to giggle. I hadn't even told him that after the ceremony we had to go get the pictures done, before a 3 hour break, and then off to the reception!

We got out of the hall, and then I admitted to him that we weren't going to the hotel yet. We'd found out that there were no places that did weddings around Caber Town, and had gone _way _to far out to go back to the stronghold in between the ceremony and the reception.

"Why am I not surprised that I don't get to relax yet?" He asked. I just laughed at him again.

**Rythian's POV**

I was very glad the whole ceremony thing was over. And the pictures weren't actually that bad. They didn't take that long, and soon we were back at the hotel, were we changed out of our suit and dress respectively. I wasn't wearing that for any longer then I had to.

The only thing Zoey didn't know was that, because of some of the people on the guest list, and the threats that were always there, I didn't go unarmed. I'd had to for the ceremony, but Ravs hadn't been. Now, underneath my shirt, (hey. It was nicer than the one I normally wore, and had sleeves.), I had a small dagger.

Zoey was sitting on one of the chairs, a bowl of popcorn on her lap. I didn't know when she'd made that, until I realized that I'd obviously spent more time then I thought I had making sure the dagger didn't stab me, but still wasn't visible.

"Gee, Rythian. I thought women spent a long time getting dressed, not men!" She called. She was no longer wearing her wedding gown, and most of her hair had now fallen out of the bun, not just the thin bit.

"Ha. You do!" I told her, which wasn't strictly true, as she spent a lot of time putting makeup on, which I found unnecessary, but hey, until a few months ago, she probably found my mask unnecessary

"I do not!" She cried indignantly, throwing a pillow at my head, on which it bounced off and fell to the floor.

"Really?" I asked, glancing from the pillow to Zoey and back again. She giggled and sat up straighter.

"Yes! Bring it, Enderborn!" I looked at her.

"You can't call me that anymore! You're Zoeya Enderborn now!" She smiled.

"Yeah, but it applies to y- oh. Sorry, Rythian. I shouldn't bring that up. Oh my goodness. Forget I said that." She blushed, looking at me like she expected me to get mad. I walked over to where she sat on the couch, sat down, and put my arm around her shoulders.

"Zoey, when I told you, I expected you to bring it up. Don't feel embarrassed. It's not your fault." She still looked at me guiltily.

"But I know you're not proud of it! So I shouldn't bring it up!"

"No, I'm not proud of it. But that doesn't mean it's banned from being said! Just don't mention it to anybody else." Then I smashed the second pillow into her face. "Now stop feeling bad."

"Hey! Rythian! I don't have a weapon!" She cried. I leapt up, leaving the pillow on her face, and went to get the other one.

In the end, we just wound up on the couch, hitting each other repeatedly with the pillows, until we both got tired of that, and fell asleep, enjoying each other's warmth.

**TIME LAPSE OF TWO HOURS**

"Oh, _shit_! Zoey, we have to be at the reception in twenty minutes!"

She sat up, and looked at me with sleepy eyes. Her make up from the wedding was smudged. "What? Oh! The reception!" She jumped off the couch and ran to the bathroom.

"Rythian! That pillow completely smeared my face!" Oops.

She stayed in the bathroom until we had five minutes to get to the hall, and then threw on her gown.

"Zoey! Come on! Oh, crap. I still didn't write a speech." She laughed, running out of the hotel room. I, sadly, was back in my suit. I already detested this suit. Or any suit. Or anything remotely dressy.

"Then just don't get _too _drunk before speeches, I beg."

We arrived without even a minute to spare. Good thing the hall was already set up, and we'd arranged to get there ten minutes early.

Ravs came first, saying that he needed to get the bar set up. I got the feeling he was also hoping to get some shots in before speeches.

"Hey! Still in your suit, I see!" He hugged me and gave Zoey a peck on the cheek.

"Ha. Not very happily, I tell you."

**Zoey's POV**

I could not believe that we had almost been late for our own reception. I hoped Rythian was in a good mood, because, while I had made my peace and even become friendly with our next guest, Rythian had barely spoken to him since he'd made the pact of non-aggression with him.

Duncan walked in, and, to my surprise, he wasn't wearing his lab coat! Kim had probably forced him into the dress shirt and tie. Kim walked next to him, in a nice red kimono.

It was kinda tense for a few seconds, before Rythian stepped up and held out his hand.

"No hard feelings, hey?" I got a suspicion that Rythian had one of those zappy-thingies in his hand, and, sure enough, Duncan drew back his hand rather quickly, with an exclamation, not of pain, but of surprise. Rythian started laughing. He threw the thing away, and gave Duncan a hug.

"Damn! I thought I was safe because you had to be all formal!" Duncan cried. Kim laughed.

"Hey. I'm married now. I don't have to be formal. Maybe at the ceremony I did, but not here! Speaking of which, when's it your turn?" Rythian nodded to Kim. Duncan shrugged, but I recognized the look in his eyes. It was the one that Rythian had worn shortly before he'd asked me to marry him. There might be another reason to get Rythian in something dressy soon.

Sjin and Minty were next, again another surprising couple on the guest list. But Minty and I got along well, and Sjin and Rythian could carry on a conversation without killing each other. So they got invited!

"Sjin! Minty!" Rythian called, holding out his hand.

"Man, I saw what you did to Duncan…"

"Look. I'm clean. No buzzers." Rythian held up his gloved hands. Then he lowered them again, and Sjin careful shook hands when offered.

"Boys." I muttered, and Minty sighed in agreement.

By the time everyone on the list had arrived, even _I _was tired of hugs and kisses. I couldn't imagine how Rythian felt; being that he was more of a hands-off kinda person.

"Well. Shall we go inside the hall, instead of standing in the doorway like idiots who don't know where they're supposed to go?" I asked.

"In a moment. This is our last bit of privacy all night." He muttered, dipping his head so that I could smell his breath.

"True," I breathed. He brushed his lips against mine, then smiled.

"Come on. Any later and it'll be rude." I nodded, and we entered the hall.

We hadn't really had a wedding party, I mean, Ravs had carried the rings to the front in his _pocket_, so instead of having the head table, just sat at one at random. It was a buffet, so people sat where they wanted, and moved as they please.

Ravs grabbed a microphone, and threw it to Martyn. "Hello everybody, I'm InTheLittleWood, also know as Martyn, and I'll be the DJ/MC for the night, because Ravs is the bartender. Now, first thing's first, we're not going to clink the glasses, because those break, and that get expensive, fast. Instead, if you want the bride and groom to kiss, you've gotta _sing_. So, have fun!" Everyone groaned, singing wasn't the greatest thing to do, especially be after speeches when everyone was already getting into their cups. Which was why it was funny.

Toby ran up to the front. "Martyn! You gotta help me!" He shouted, grabbing a second mic from Ravs, because for some reason, all the microphones were in the bar. I suspected it wasn't a coincidence.

"What? Toby…"

"I love the mountains…"

"Toby…"

"I love the clear blue skies…"

"I love big bridges…"

"I love when wolves run by…"

"I love the whole world…"

"And all explosive sounds…"

"BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA!"

"Toby… why are you doing this?" Martyn asked, sounding a little embarrassed.

The messy-haired guy just grinned.

"I love the ocean…"

"I love everything…"

"I love to go fast…"

Martyn was silent for a moment, and Toby smacked him for it. "Come on!"

The Sapling Prince sighed, and then sang the next line. "I love to plant saplings!"

"I love the whole world, and all its craziness, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA! I love some redstone, I love my zombie friends! I love hot lava; I love how this game ends! I love the whole world; it's such a brilliant place, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOOMDYADA, BOODYADA!" They finished together.

"Oh my gosh. Martyn…Toby…that…I don't even know." I laughed, standing up. Rythian rose from his seat next to me, muttering about hating being tall, and we counted kiss #1 for the evening. Well, technically, number 2, but the first kissing game kiss.

We sat back down at one of the many tables, only to be called over by Sjin and Minty, who were across the room, closer to the door.

"Hey! You guys forgot some guests!" I looked at Rythian, who shrugged. We'd _thought _everyone was here. Kaeyi, Martyn, Xephos, Lomadia, Duncan, Kim, Sjin, Minty, Honeydew, Nilesy, Ravs, Toby, Sips… Who was missing?

A group of four were standing in just inside the building, looking around like they weren't sure they were at the right place. They had heavy-looking bags slung over their shoulders. The one in the back had two bags.

"This is where the invite said! And there's Sjin, and Minty, and Rythian and Zoey! I told you!" One of them told the others.

The man in the front, who was the one who had said that, had red hair and beard, and set his bags down before giving Rythian and me a hug.

"Hey!" Sparkles* began, grinning. "You forgot the band!"

**Rythian's POV**

"Oh my goodness! I tried sending you an invitation, because I figured you might be in Tekkit-Topia, but you never RSVP'd…" Zoey babbled.

"Kogie! What the hell, man? You told me you'd called!" Sparkles* admonished. The guitarist looked embarrassed.

"I may have meant I would do it later, and then forgot." He admitted.

"Actually, in all fairness, we missed the RSVP date anyways." Leo declared, setting down his bags.

"Yeah! We only found out we could come like, 2 days ago! We were supposed to have a gig, but thankfully, they cancelled." Parv agreed.

"Anyways, Martyn told us he was DJing, and we decided to rescue you from that!" Kogie announced. Martyn stepped outside, with Kaeyi next to him.

"Hey! I heard that!" He cried indignantly.

"So?"

"Sparkles*! I haven't seen you in forever!" Kaeyi exclaimed.

"Hey, Kaeyi. How're you?"

"Great! I mean, I'm in Tekkit-Topia with Martyn, and I'm here for a wedding! That's awesome!" She cried.

"Well, about the band, we didn't really plan for one, so I hope you have your own stuff…" Zoey's voice trailed as she realized her mistake.

"Zoey. Did you really think we were just hauling these heavy bags full of instruments for nothing?" Sparkles* asked dryly.

"Wait a minute. Yours aren't that heavy! I've got a drum set!" Leo objected.

"And I have the mics, my keytar, the soundboard, and all the amps and cables. Kiss my ass." Sparkles* told the drummer.

"Okay!"

I winced. "Dude. Leo, I did _not _need that image." The members of Area 11 just laughed along with the others.

"Your sick mind. Not mine!" Leo told him.

"Well, if you're gonna be the band, then I hope you can play more than your anime stuff." I said, half-joking.

"You know, Cassandra Part II isn't based on anime. But yeah. We do covers, too." Sparkles* told us.

"And you don't count for the kissing game." I said. Zoey laughed.

"The what?" Parv asked, looking confused.

"Instead of clinking glasses with spoons, you have to sing to get them to kiss." Kaeyi explained.

"Oh! Good thing I can play the four cord song!" Parv remarked.

"Brilliant."

**Zoey's POV**

When we went back inside, the first thing that happened was Ravs shoved a drink into my hands. I was fairly sure that it would make my tongue numb from the first sip, but I drank it anyways. Probably a mistake. But who cared?

I put the glass down on the table, and went to get something to eat. Speeches would be coming up soon, and I didn't want to do mine on an empty stomach.

I was just sitting down, when Parv strummed a distinctive tune… it seemed like I'd better go find Rythian.

Sjin and Sips stood at the front, already looking embarrassed. "So…um…this is the only song we actually know. That isn't a parody. Martyn's the only who'll be singing parodies. So…"

" G, gummy bears are chasing me. One is red, one is blue, one is pooping on my shoe, now I'm running for my life, cuz the red one has a knife."

"Brilliant!" Honeydew yelled, his drink sloshing dangerously in his hand. "Bloody brilliant!"

I personally liked that Rythian was so tall, because I could always find him. Kiss #2, check!

I went back to the table that my plate was sitting at, and Rythian went to go get a drink. I really hoped he wasn't serious about getting hammered before speeches. Even if he wasn't, if Ravs was giving him the same thing he gave me, Rythian's speech was doomed. Even more than it already was.

"Hey, Zoey!" Kim cried as I sat down. "Duncan was just saying that he was going to go up and sing!"

"Wot? I never-"

"Great! You do that, Duncan." I told him.

"I'm going to get drunk." The scientist declared. We laughed, knowing he probably wasn't kidding. Duncan would get drunk, and then go sing. And probably fall off the stage.

"You ready to have Drunkan as a dancing partner?" I asked Kim. She shook her head.

"But they're getting along, so I can't even go put a stop to it!" She cried. I looked at the bar, and, sure enough, Rythian and Duncan were laughing like old friends.

"I don't mean to be rude by saying this, but just how drunk _is_ Rythian?" I wondered.

"I don't think you wanna know the answer to that question." Kim told me.

"Or maybe, they're just getting along for a change!"

"A mix of both, from the looks of it. Rythian's only had one, but you don't wanna know how strong the stuff Ravs's is pouring for him is." Martyn told me, sitting down in Duncan's empty seat, a fresh drink in his hand. I figured Rythian got the same thing as me, and my head was buzzing quite pleasantly, so it couldn't have been _too _bad… "But you'll be glad to know that Rythian's speech won't be slurred. Yet."

"Great, I guess it's time to go interrupt. I need him conscious by the end of the night, because I can't walk back to the hotel _and _carry him."

"He'll be conscious. It just depends on how conscious." Kim joked.

"Wonderful." I stood up and walked towards the bar.

"Hey, Zoey!" Rythian said, smiling. He didn't seem _too _drunk yet…that was good. I walked over to where he stood, and stopped directly in front of him. He put his arm on my shoulder, and his chin brushed the back of my head. He didn't smell like alcohol, and I was reassured.

"I know why you came here, you know." He whispered. Duncan obviously heard, because he snorted.

"To see my husband on my wedding day?" I asked innocently.

"I'm not going to get hammered before the speeches. I was just going to leave and get something to eat when you came over." I nodded. Duncan laughed again.

"Mother Hen, isn't she?" He was clearly talking about me.

"Hey! I'll make you do a speech!" I threatened.

"I can't! I don't have anything planned!" Rythian blushed; I could feel the heat radiating from him.

"I don't either!" He told Duncan. The scientist raised his eyebrow.

"Seriously?"

"Seriously."

"Well, I left my supper to get cold, so I'm going to go back to it." Rythian moved his arm off my shoulder, and I left.

**Rythian's POV**

"Well then. It appears the mother I barely had will be replaced by my wife." I joked.

"What happened to your mother?" Duncan asked. Shit. Why had I said that? Duncan must have seen the discomfort on my face, because his next words were, "only answer that if you want to."

"She died when I was 13. I guess I knew her better then some people know their parents…"

"And your dad?" My defences shot up. My father was not a topic I liked bringing up. At all.

"I never met him." I said simply, closing the matter. Duncan nodded as if he understood.

"Me either. My mother said he was a good guy, but how could he be a good guy if he left me and my mom alone?" Duncan asked.

"Well, I know my dad wasn't a good guy." I don't know why I was saying this to the man who used to be my enemy. Maybe I was tired of secrets. But it wasn't like I would tell him _how _I knew my father was a bad guy. A monster. That was for me, and now, Zoey to know, and only us. At the moment, I wasn't willing to tell others.

"How?'

"I-I can't say." I stuttered. Why had I brought that up if I wasn't going to talk about it? _Stupid!_

"That's okay." Duncan said simply, like I was a distraught child. Weird.

"Hey Ravs!" I called. "Could I get another drink?" Duncan smiled.

"I thought you weren't going to get hammered before the speeches." He said.

"I'm not."

Then, with my second drink in my hand, (seriously, what was everybody worried about?), I walked towards the buffet, and grabbed some supper. I went and found Zoey, and sat next to her to eat.

"Hey guys! Martyn has a song for you!" Sparkles* called into the microphone. Martyn brandished his own mic.

"_Hey!_" It was super loud. "Oh, sorry. I guess this is on. Anyways, Sips was wrong! I'm not singing a parody!"

Area 11 began the cords.

"Turn off whatever tune's on, and listen to this new song! It's Blue Xephos, the Yogscast, the Goon Squad! Whatever name you wanna call us, fine, let's move on, and clarify a few things to avoid confusion! There's no need for PayPal, vouchers or a coupon, you can see us free of charge, like a neutron. We won't blow the roof off, but we'll put a roof on. We're obsessed with little cubes, and I'm not talking croutons! So get your shoes shone, to a sheen, put your feet up on the futon, and us upon the screen!"

Honeydew ran up.

"I am a dwarf, and I'm digging a hole, diggy diggy hole, I'm digging a hole! I'm Dan Bull and I'm kicking a flow, kicky kicky flow, I'm kicking a flow!" They finished. I stood up, yet again, and wondered just how many people were going to be brave enough to sing.

Our lips brushed, and we sat down.

"Oh, come on! What was that?" Sjin asked.

"A kiss…" Zoey told him.

"I guess you could call it that. By a loose definition."

"Oh, come on. Are you really going to criticize our kisses?" I asked.

"Yep! Now get up and try again." Sjin told us. We stood again, and this time, we held the moment a little longer.

"Better." Sjin told us. Zoey stuck her tongue out at him.

"Wow, Zoey. Mature. I thought we grew out of sticking our tongues out in like, kindergarten. Zoey blushed.

"All right Sjin! If that was so terrible, let's see yours!" I called. Sjin grabbed Minty's hand and hauled her out of her chair.

"Really, Sjin?" She asked.

"Yep!" And then Sjin kissed her. For a minute. Two.

"Oh, Notch! Get a room!" Toby told them. Suddenly, they were done kissing. What do you know?

Zoey and I were seated again, and I leaned over to whisper in her ear. "Decision. We don't do that in public."

"I agree." She whispered back.

"Okay! We're going to do speeches in about five minutes, so speakers, finish up what you're eating, and come over to the stage." Martyn called. The band started a new song, and I prepared myself to be humiliated.

I ran my plate to the kitchen, and went over to the stage, where Ravs and Zoey already stood. "Hi. I don't even know what I'm supposed to say." I told them.

"Just thank everybody for coming and pass me the microphone." Zoey told me.

"Okay…" This was going to suck. I hated talking in front of a lot of people. I'd probably do the same thing I did during my vows. And then nobody would believe I wasn't drunk. Duncan was drunk. I wasn't.

Zoey rested her head on my shoulder. "You smell nice." She told me. I sighed.

"In other words, I don't smell like alcohol. So you're checking, yet again, that I'm still sober. Can't I just tell you? I'm not going to lie, you know." She nodded.

"Sorry. I just took you seriously when you said you were going to get drunk before speeches."

"I figured that out." I told her. She just sighed, and requested that Ravs start the speeches.

"Um…Okay! Hello everybody! I spent all day trying to come up with an embarrassing story for the two of them, but I couldn't." Zoey laughed. It was a good thing no one had been in Blackrock Stronghold during the Baby Jim fiasco. "Oh, the bride knows something I don't. What I can tell you is, along with many pets, these guys have a baby volcano. So do _not _mess with them. Anyone who can have a baby volcano is scary."

"Ravs! He's Toddler Jim now! He grew up!" Zoey told him. I still didn't know how a volcano could grow, and I didn't really want to know.

"Right. Sorry. They have a toddler volcano. So, anyways, that's the best I've got. You'll have to bug Zoey when she comes up. Anyways, another thing that is possibly mildly embarrassing for them is that everyone in this room knew they were going to wind up together before they did. From the first time Rythian walked into The Crooked Caber and started talking about Sjin and Duncan, and you guys, I'll spare you of the knowledge of what he said; but even though he never mentioned Zoey, but I could tell he wasn't just mad at you two. He was heartsick. And the first time I met Zoey, I might add the first thing she asked about me was, what's wrong with his nose?, but anyways, the first time I met Zoey, I was like, yep! That's her."

"Am I that transparent?" I asked.

"Like glass, Rythian. Like glass. But anyways, they finally admitted that they loved each other, and I know I was like, it's about time! So… yeah. That's pretty much a speech. Here you go, Rythian."

"Okay, first thing I should tell you is that I hate talking in front of people. And I didn't plan a speech. And I'm _not _drunk. So thank you all for coming, now I'm going to hand the microphone to Zoey, so I can stop embarrassing myself. Here you go, Zoey!" I handed her the mic, and stood there and waited for her to finish her speech.

"O-kay! So, I may have forgotten to tell him he had to plan a speech. But I didn't know he hadn't figured that out. I mean, seriously. It isn't like this is the first wedding he's ever been to!"

I interrupted her. "Actually, this is the first wedding I've ever been to."

"Okay. I stand corrected. My apologies. My husband is a noob at his own wedding. Brilliant. Anyways, I don't have a great speech, but I have a speech. First thing is, you can bug me as much as you want, but I will _not _tell you what I was laughing about during Ravs's speech, because… well, it's a good thing that no one was in the castle when that went down. Bother Rythian. He might tell you. Second, thank you all for coming, thank you Martyn, for being the MC tonight, and thanks to Ravs for helping out with many things… and a surprise thank you to Area 11, for showing up out of the blue and playing the music for tonight! Enjoy!" Zoey handed the microphone to Martyn.

"Well, I think Rythian's going to have to answer some questions about that event at Blackrock later, my recommendation would be make sure he's drunk before you ask him. Anyways, speeches are over, dessert is on the table, and the bar is open and has always been!" Martyn handed the mic to Sparkles*, who just grinned like he had a terribly evil idea.

"I am now taking song requests, anything we haven't practiced will be done with the four-cord song, so come make suggestions!" He announced. "At least… after this. Zoey, Rythian, don't bother leaving the stage. It's your turn to sing."

"Sparkles*, I really don't want to make the guests ears bleed." I protested. "And what are we singing?"

"You've done it before, for Christmas…"

"Oh, shit. Sparkles*… I'm going to kill you."

"Come on!" He threw me a mic, which I caught in one hand. I then resisted the urge to throw it at his head.

"I cannot believe I'm doing this. I knew I should have gotten drunk before the speeches." I muttered, still standing in the far corner.

"Zoey, your husband's being uncooperative. Go bring him up, will you?" Kogie told her. She grinned and ran to get me.

"Don't you dare!" I said as she reached for my hand. "I hate this song now, after I had to sing it."

"Well, can once more really hurt?"

"Yes!"

"To bad. Come on!" She gripped my hand and dragged me up.

"I won't sing!" I told her.

"You'll sing, Enderborn."

"Again, you can't say that!"

"I can, and I will."

We were at the front of the stage, and Parv threw Zoey a microphone, which she almost dropped.

"I really can't stay…" She sang.

"Baby, it's cold outside." I half-sang, half-said. Zoey smacked my arm.

"I've got to go away…"

"It is _so _cold outside."

"This evening has been…"

"I was hoping you'd drop in."

"…So very nice."

"I'll hold your hands, they're just like ice."

"My mother will start, to worry."

"Oh, what's your hurry?"

"My father will be pacing the floor."

We finished the song, and I all but ran off the stage. "I think that was worse than the first time!" I cried, and Zoey laughed.

"Well, you were. I wasn't! I didn't forget the lines halfway through!"

"Zoey, I haven't sang that in _years_!"

She giggled and ran off to sit down again.

"Okay… our first request is from Nilesy, I'm not quite sure how he came up with this… but we'll roll with it." Sparkles* announced.

"He rocks in the tree tops, all day long, hopping and a-bobbing and singing a song! All the little birdies on Jaybird street, love to hear the robin go tweet tweet tweet.

"Rockin' robin, rock, rock, rockin' robin, blow rockin' robin 'cause we're really gonna rock tonight!"

We laughed, and I decided not to ask how Nilesy thought of that one.

"Okay! I have a song to sing now!" Honeydew called out. He ran up to the stage, and Parv nodded to whatever he whispered.

"I was sittin' on a bar stool, in a barbecue joint, in Tennessee. When this old boy walked in, and he sat right down next to me. I could tell he'd been through some hard times, there we tear stains on his old shirt, and he said you wanna know what you get… when you play a country song backwards….

"You get your house back, you get your dog back, you get you best friend Jack back, you get your truck back, you get your hair back, you get your first and second wives back, you get the porch swing, you pretty little thing, your bling bling bling and a diamond ring, you get your farm and the barn and the boat and the Harley, first night in jail with Charlie. It sounds a little crazy, a little scattered and absurd, but that's what you get when you play a country song backwards."

Honeydew finished, and though I didn't mind the excuse to kiss Zoey, I wondered how many people were going to be brave enough to sing.

**Zoey's POV**

I wondered just how many people were going to ask Rythian about the Baby Jim incident.

Rythian and I should have just stopped going to separate places. More people then we would have ever expected were willing to sing.

"Hey Rythian! Long time, no see!" I joked, reaching his side. We shared a kiss that made my toes curl.

"That was a kiss." Sjin told us.

"Oh, shut up." I told him. He just grinned.

"Drunkan's going to sing soon." He told us.

"Hey! I'm not so drunk I can't hear that!" Duncan snapped.

"I know you aren't!" Sjin told him.

"I'm not drunk; I just think it's funny!" Duncan told him.

"Yeah. It's funny, I guess. And dumb!

"What, 'cause we're the targets and yet I'm singing it?" Duncan asked him

"Target… Duncan…" Rythian's voice trailed off. "You're not… oh Notch."

"Rythian, what's he talking about?" I asked.

"One of the like, three songs I've ever sang." He didn't explain a lot by saying that.

"What?"

"A parody… I made… When I was mad…"

"You got it, Rythian!" Sjin exclaimed.

"Shit."

"So... Drunk- er, _Dunc_an, sorry, is going to sing a parody written by the groom. I really hope Rythian doesn't feel this way anymore, because otherwise, it might get messy."

"Rythian... I think I know which parody he's talking about."

"The one I made around Christmas."

"Yep."

Duncan cleared his throat. "Don't judge me. Judge Rythian. He wrote it."

"They'd better watch out, they're going to cry, they're going to scream when we're flying on by. Sjin and Duncan are going to die.

"Their armour won't protect them, it's made of shitty stuff, when we stab them with katars they're gonna have it rough. Sjin and Duncan are going to die

"We don't care if you love them, just like us and subscribe. We're throwing them in the lava; they're going to lose their lives.

"They'd better watch out, they're going to cry, they're going to scream when we're flying on by. Sjin and Duncan are going to die!"

**Rythian's POV**

"Nice one, Rythian." Minty remarked. I just kissed Zoey and ignored them.

"Why is everybody in a Christmas mood?" Kim asked.

"Yo, Kim! Where you been? It's Christmas in a week! Speaking of which, we're gonna do a Christmas song! And this one totally counts." Sparkles* announced.

"It's Christmas Eve, but no snow's falling down. I'm all alone, and there's no one around! Can't pay my bills, 'cause I lost my job. I still got power but my internet's off.

"I hate this world, but I love this new seed. 68954012663! I spawn in a forest, with now on the floor. Could this be the Christmas I was searching for?

"My mates went away, and they didn't invite me. My parents are dead, no, they just don't like me! Put two blocks of snow, and a pumpkin together, I made a friend who'll be with me forever!

"'Cause it's a Minecraft Christmastime, chilling with my buddy even though I'm offline, there's a whole world of joy and cheer, that's a very very very nice Christmas you're having this year!

"We built a house, well it's more of a shack, I got the wood and he's got my back, he throws his balls at the mobs so unruly, I decked the halls with this lapis lazuli!

"We ventured out, just my snowman and me, we found a sapling for a Christmas tree, we skipped back home, so happy and gay, no, wait, I meant that in the old-fashioned way!

"We had a roast chicken, 'cause the game's not got turkey, we made mashed potato from this squid that's so derpy, but the furnace was hot, and when I awoke I found, fifteen little snowballs lying there on the ground.

"'Cause it's a Minecraft Christmastime, noting seems cheery now my buddy has died, there's a whole world of pain and fear, it's a very very very bad Christmas I'm having this year!

"There goes my phone, it's a text from my dad, an early gift; he got my internet back, hop on the server all my friends are online, turns out they've been waiting for me all of this time.

"Spawn into the world, and what do I see? A snowman party for my homies and me, exchanging gifts, and dancing without a care, me and my snowman, we're walking in the air!

"It's a Minecraft Christmastime, chilling with my buddies everyone is online, there's a whole world of joy and cheer, that's a very very very nice Christmas you're having-

"A very very very nice Christmas, whoah,

"A very very very nice Christmas we're having this year." Honeydew grabbed a mic and added his part.

"Would be a shame if something were happen to it."

Zoey and I shared yet another kiss, no regret there.

"Okay… We're going to call the bride and groom to front of the hall now, and… I don't even know. I just got a message telling me to call them to the front." Martyn called. I walked to the front, Zoey next to me.

"We're going to get pies thrown at us, or something." I told her. She giggled.

"No, we're just going to cut the cake! I sent the message, because he forgot!"

"I thought it was already cut. And why do we have to do that?"

"Because it's a tradition for weddings. Oh, right! I'm not a noob in this case! You are!"

"Zoey. I grew up in a village where everyone hated me, and my mother. I didn't go to any weddings!"

"Okay, noob."

"You're having _way _too much fun with that."

"This is the first time I know something you don't! You even understand all the sciency stuff I talk about."

"That's because I studied it for a number of years, before… I had an accident with it. My apprentice… my first apprentice, my apprentice to the art of science, didn't make it. That's why I didn't trust it, not for the longest time. I didn't love her, the way I love you, but… it was still hard. Seeing you work with science, at first, terrified me. It reminded me of her."

"Rythian! You should have told me!"

"We can discuss this later. For now, we have a cake to cut, apparently."

**Zoey's POV**

The cake cutting passed rather uneventfully, and soon we were all dancing. The first dance was awkward, because Rythian couldn't dance. We'd picked So Beautiful as the song, and Sparkles* by some miracle, could sing it,

"Whether I'm right or wrong, there's no phrase that hits. Like an ocean meets the sand, or a dirty old shoe that fits. And if all the world was perfect, I would only ever wanna see your scars. You know, they can have their universe, we'll be in the dirt, designing stars…"

Martyn eventually took pity on us, and called everybody else up. The moment the song was over, Rythian got off the dance floor.

"Well, that went well."

We danced a bit, and drank more, until I realized that my bouquet was still sitting at a table… we had forgotten that part.

Rythian threw his thing without any difficulty, and now I stood on the table, my bouquet in my hands, turned away from the small crowd. (Really, there was like, four. Minty wasn't in the crowd, she and Sjin had tied the knot last summer.) I threw the bouquet over my head, and had a sudden dizzy spell. I started falling off the table. Rythian rushed over to catch me, but slipped on a patch of water and wound up on his back, right where I fell. Brilliant.

"Oof! Am I just not allowed to breathe all of the sudden?" Rythian asked when I landed on his stomach. He had told me he had just gotten his breath back from hitting the ground when I landed on him. Everyone just laughed at us, while we struggled to stand up.

After that, the wedding was rather uneventfully, unless you count a close to first time drunk Toby singing It's Always a Good Time with Kaeyi and Hannah. That was funny.

"It's always a good time!"

"We don't even have to try, it's always a good time."

A good time indeed.

**See y'all! I know... it sucks. I'm sorry! But anyways, I'm working on a Halloween special, and I need an idea for next week, before I can post the scary one. (Hopefully scary, probably just weird and horribly off-cannon.) So send me ideas of what you want to see!**

**Don't leave your wands on the table!**

**~Feather Flower**


	7. Chapter 7

**Herobrine**

**You can't have slaughter without laughter. Hello, hello. It's Featherflower here. So… The Nether. Big, scary, unnaturally hot, buggy place. Not your dream location…This is my Halloween Special, but it's not that scary.**

**I might try to replace scary with gory. Beware, because, I did warn you.**

**PS: It doesn't start out very scary**

**Also, I know I said I would do a Halloween update next week, but this is it. And I'm dealing with a computer monitor that won't turn on do so, so be happy. My finger hurts from holding the 'on' button. Lol.**

**And I have no tabs. Stupid copy-paste.**

**Notes:**

_Italic: Herobrine/Enderside_

_Italic and Underlined: Rythian's Mental voice_

_**Italic Underlined and Bold: Lalna's Mental voice**_

_**Italic and Bold: Sjin/Zoey's Mental voice**_

_~Italic with these weird curly cues: Minty's Mental voice~_****

**Rythian's POV  
><strong>  
>I was sick of fetching cocoa beans. We hadn't gone in the portal since the first time, but they were getting harder and harder to find. It was rather annoying.<p>

Zoey and I had been out for ages. Were two people really required in order to find cocoa beans? Probably not.

"Rythian, I feel sick." Zoey declared. I hadn't noticed it before, but I didn't feel great either. I felt, uneasy. My stomach twisted and turned and felt all around, well, sick.

"Yeah, well, the sooner we find cocoa beans, the sooner we can leave. I think it's just the area we're in." Zoey nodded, stepping forward, and loosing a bone-chilling scream.

"Zoey!" I yelled. She'd disappeared. Where was she? What had happened? Then I looked down and saw the hole, with the portal at the bottom.

"Oh, shit." I muttered, jumping in after her, my cape billowing and flapping deafeningly as I plummeted. Today was going to be a long day.

**Lalna's POV**

The machines weren't working in my favor today. So far, I'd been covering in luminescent pink paint, dusted with sand, and narrowly avoided being covered with syrup and chicken feathers. I should add that I was still pink.

I was fiddling with one of the few that hadn't showered me in stuff, when I stuck my hand in… something. "Notch damn this shit!" I yelled, shoving my now-burned fingers in my mouth. At least I hadn't been wearing gloves. They would have melted to my skin.

Kim came around the corner, laughing.

"What happened this time, Dr. Lalna?" I sighed, withdrawing my fingers from my mouth. They still felt like they were burning, and were rather red and blistery.

"I stuck my fingers in something really hot trying to get this stupid machine to work." Resentfully, I kicked the machine, which started smoking.

"Oh, shiiit!" I yelled, diving out of the way as it started dispelling bouncy balls.

"What the hell is wrong with the machines today?" I muttered, standing up, shaking the dust off my pink-splashed lab coat. My hands and face were still splattered in spots, and none of it had come out  
>of my hair. Unfortunately, my head had taken the worst of it. My goggles were garbage.<p>

"Good job. Wanna take a break? Go for a walk? Blow off some steam on some mobs?" Kim asked, and I nodded. Anything to get away from the defective machines that spewed pink paint and bouncy balls.

"Just let me go soak my hand in cold water for a while…" I said, reaching out my good hand to turn on the tap, sticking my fingers under it at the same time. Unfortunately, Kim had been doing the dishes, and the water was burning hot. I shrieked in pain and drew my fingers back.

Kim laughed again and handed me a bucket full of water. "Use that. I just collected it from the lake." She advised. I stuck my hand in the icy water, grateful as they turned numb.

After a while, I drew out my hand, dried it off, wrapped some of the bandages I carried with me at all times around my burned fingers, and slipped my gloves on, for once grateful that they were too big. I was pissed though, because I'd burned my right hand. So I had to go around fighting as a lefty. Bloody hell.

We wandered around, and suddenly, there was a blood-curdling scream. I whipped my head towards the noise.

"Kim… what was that?" I asked.

"I don't know, Lalna. But we should find out." I agreed, and we ran towards where the sound had come from.

I found the hole first, by almost falling in it. A portal sat at the bottom, and I realized that what had almost happened to me probably did happen to the person who screamed. Even if it wasn't, random  
>portals in the woods should likely be checked out.<p>

"Hey, Kim," I called. "I think I found the problem!" She ran over.

"Very good, Lalna." She said dryly. "Let me guess. You almost fell in."

I blushed. "Yeah… But now I'm gonna jump in." I as spoke, I leapt. Kim followed close behind me.

I landed on something the moved. "Ow! Lalna! What the hell?"  
><strong><br>Sjin's POV**

I was having a nice little picnic with Minty. A checkered blanket was spread on the ground beneath us. A picnic basket sat between us. It was a beautiful day, with sunlight dappling the ground around us.

Contented and comfortable, I leaned back, and there was no ground behind me.

"Oh my Notch!" I yelled, falling ass over teakettle into a hole.

"Sjin!" Minty called, as I fell through the purple tinted portal at the bottom of the hole.

"It's okay! Don't-" I passed all the way through the portal and landed on something black and white.

"Wha- Sjin! Get the hell off me!" Lalna called. Someone else just groaned in pain. And then Minty fell on top of me.

"Minty!" I complained. Lalna sighed, and the person at the bottom just groaned as the breath was driving out of him. Then he spoke.

"Lalna, if you don't get your elbow out of my stomach, I will kill you."

"Rythian?" I asked.

"The one and only!"

Minty scrambled off of me, with a little help from Zoey, who came out of nowhere.

"Having fun, Rythian?" She asked, giggling.

"Someone is digging their elbow into my stomach, Lalna, and another person is sitting just so that they can force the point of their sword into my leg so that it hurts. No, I'm not having fun."

"Sorry," I muttered, slipping off of Lalna, who literally fell off Rythian.

Just then did I notice we were in the Nether, with no available way out for anyone who couldn't fly. The portal was in the blood-red sky. Red light washed over our faces, coloring them strangely. Dark  
>shadows gathered around us, especially Rythian. The mage's eyes seemed to be emitting a strange, faint purple light, but I figured I must be imagining it.<p>

"Well, anyone got a jetpack?" I asked. Rythian just glared at me. Lalna shook his head. Zoey shrugged. Kim looked helplessly at me. I knew Minty didn't have one, and neither did I.

"Either way, I don't know about jetpacks, but for magical means, flying in the Nether isn't a good idea." Rythian declared.

"No, that's true for everything." Lalna announced. I nodded.

"Great. Then I guess we search for another portal." Zoey announced, glancing around. We were an awkward bunch. One man that hated all the other guys, two who were uneasy allies, and of course, those two viewed themselves as the other man's enemies. And then our… apprentices/significant others were here too.

Like I said. Awkward.  
><strong><br>Rythian's POV**

This was one of the worst things that ever happened to me. Of course, my life wasn't great, but this was only under a few. Getting killed by the men who now stood next to me, being shown B.A.R.R.Y., the nuke exploding…

"So. Great. We're stuck in the Nether. Fun. Now, the question is, which way do we go to find a portal? The problem is, no one knows where this portal takes us. So we don't know where one of ours would be. And my waypoints don't seem to be working…" Lalna said. I checked mine and found that they came up blank.

The worst thing though, was probably that in the Nether, being so close to the End, my eyes glowed softly no matter what I did. So people were going to notice, soon.

"Brilliant." I muttered, glancing around. Nothing looked familiar in the least.

"Well, I can tell you we're not near my portal. You know the one near former Blackrock Stronghold?" My voice was barbed. Lalna had the decency to look embarrassed.

"Look, Rythian-"

"If either of you two gets into this, I will never speak to you again. And I'm sure Kim agrees, Lalna. We have more important things to get done. Look at me. I'm the one who got blown up, and I'm not starting fights!" Zoey's voice was deadly serious.

"She's right!" Kim declared, glared pointedly at Lalna. That's when I noticed that it wasn't just bad lighting. Something about the scientist's coloring was off. He looked, pink. And he was glowing  
>softly, like my eyes.<p>

I then realized that the glow of my eyes wasn't a problem. It was when it got brighter. When it attacked, that would be a problem.  
><em><br>You try it, and I will find a way to kill you. I'm 95% sure it's possible._

_It's not._

_Then I'll make you wish you were dead._

Then I turned my attention back to the pink scientist.

"Lalna? What's up with your hair?"

"I had an accident with a couple machines. That one spilled luminescent pink paint on my head. A different one dumped sand all over me. And so on, and so forth."

"Harsh." I said. Even if I didn't like Lalna, I wouldn't curse anyone to walk around covered in glowing pink paint.

_You're growing soft, Rythian_.

_I am not. Now shut the hell up._

I knew sooner or later, it was going to attack me. It wouldn't pass up an opportunity to provoke hard questions. Also, it knew that if enough people were around, at least one of them would ask me questions and distract me.

"You're telling me!" Lalna laughed.

"Okay. Now, the way to go would not be north. There's never anything to the north. No Nether Fortress, nothing. So why would there be a portal there?" To me, it made sense.

"Wait. There's no Nether Fortress to the north?" Minty asked. "Well, that explains a lot."

Zoey and Kim started laughing. Minty blushed.

"Well then. Everybody except Minty knows not to go north in the Nether." I said good-naturedly.

_I will so get you this time_.

_Why do you figure that?_

_Because you're being weak_.

_I am not being weak! I'm being friendly! You know, I have to quest around the Nether with these people, so we might as well pretend to get along! That and, Zoey wasn't kidding. She will stop talking to me._

_Like I said. Weak._

"I am not weak!" Oops. I had said that out loud.

"Huh? Rythian? Are you okay?" Sjin asked, looking at me with half-genuine concern in his eyes.

"Yeah. I'm sorry about that. Just ignore me."

"Who were you talking to?" Kim asked.

"Um… no one. Just, like I said. Ignore me." They still looked suspicious, and probably thought I was crazy, but they stopped asking questions.  
><strong><br>Lalna's POV**

Ever since Rythian brought up Blackrock, I'd felt horribly guilty. And now, because of Kim and Zoey, I couldn't even bring it up.

But now, I was kinda scared of the mage. When Kim had asked him that question, his eyes seemed to glow, sort of like my hair. Then I realized they had always been glowing. They had just gotten brighter when she said that.

But my hair was paint. These were his eyes. I was 99.9% sure he didn't wear contacts, and if he did, then they wouldn't only glow at weird moments. But surely if they were natural, they wouldn't glow at  
>all…<p>

Weird.

"So…since we can't go north, let's go south!" I suggested. Rythian nodded slowly, and everyone else seemed to agree as well.

"Um… does anyone have a spare sword?" Minty asked suddenly. Rythian handed her a Thaumonomicon sword and pulled out a plain diamond one. I didn't know why he gave her the better one, but I didn't question it. Maybe he had a reason for it. Or maybe he just felt generous.

"Don't worry if something happens to it. I have more at home." He told the blond, who nodded.

"Thanks." Then she started off to the south. We followed her, walking over the uneven red ground. Our footsteps resounded around us. The air was uncomfortably warm. I felt watched. My stomach clenched and turned and twisted with every step. There was something different about the Nether today. The air carried a faint buzzing sound, like it was charged with electricity. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Goosebumps rose on my arms.

Other than that, it went relatively well. Until I almost fell in the lava.

"Oh, Notch! HELP!" My foot slipped out from under me, and I fell towards the molten red liquid.

I thought I was done for, until a strong hand gripped my collar, hauled me up, and threw me away from the edge. I stumbled and fell, then turned back to see my rescuer. Rythian stood near the cliff face, staring at the lava.

"Oh goodness. Thanks Rythian!"

"Be quiet." There was tightness in his voice. He had his back to us, and I couldn't see his face, but I got a sneaking suspicion that if I could, his eyes would be glowing brightly again. Cautiously, I approached him, until I could see that, sure enough, his eyes resembled a pair of flashlights with purple bulbs.

"Rythian?"

"I told you to shut up, Lalna." Rythian growled. His shoulders were tight. He snapped his eyes shut and gritted his teeth. His whole body trembled. I didn't know if it was from rage or overexertion.

Zoey walked to my side.

"I don't know why this happens, but you don't bother Rythian when his eyes are glowing. Its makes him mad." I nodded. I would have to do some research when I got home.

Then, the mage collapsed. Kim raced forward, but Zoey stopped her.

"It's okay, He'll stand up again." She declared.

"What is going on?" I demanded.

"Again, I say, I don't actually know. But I know he likely won't become a crazy wizard on the edge of insanity. Of course, he is already crazy, but that's okay. He shouldn't kill us all."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Zoey," Rythian walked over to us. He still trembled, and seemed unsteady on his feet. "And Lalna, don't bother asking me what just happened, because I won't tell you. So don't waste your breath."

"But your eyes-"

"Were glowing, Yes, they're my eyes. I believe I know that. But thanks anyways." Rythian said crossly. He glared at me, but there was weakness and suffering in his gaze. What the hell?

"So, anyways! Let's keep going. Lalna, watch your step, you klutz. Next time, Rythian might not be close enough to save you." Sjin told me.

**Sjin's POV**

I didn't know what had just happened. I just knew it was terrifying.

Now that it was over, we continued on our way. I saw Zoey mutter something to Rythian, and him whisper back, still looking cross. I felt kinda bad for Zoey. She lived with a guy who, 96% of the time had no sense of humor. At least, that's what it seemed like to me. Maybe he was different at his castle. He had to be, or Zoey would go insane. I knew I would.

The air hummed ominously around us. Once or twice, I thought I saw eyes watching us. White eyes. But that couldn't be. Then again… ten minutes ago, I would have said eyes couldn't glow. But Rythian's just had, and I truly believed they always had been. Just not as bright. They still were now, just greatly dimmed.

So was I imagining them, or was it possible that he wasn't a legend? No. It definitely wasn't possible. He couldn't exist. Between Notch and his attendants, he would have been annihilated. And surely Ridge would have told us? Ridge had a habit of knowing things other didn't.

**Rythian's POV**

"You teleported, didn't you? Someday, you'll have to teach me that." Zoey's breath was hot on my ear.

"Hush. Not here. Not now." I told her, and she sighed. I couldn't talk about it. Not with the four other people around us. I hadn't wanted to teleport, but I figured that it was that or let Lalna die. Any other day, I would have laughed as he fell. Today, well, we were stuck together. I didn't want to have a very upset Kim in the mix. And Zoey knew I could teleport. She'd have never forgiven me if I'd let him fall.

But I was considerably weakened, to the point that I hadn't succeed in carrying out my threat of making my Enderside, of making it wish it could die without me dying as well.

I felt something tug at my cape, and turned around to see Lalna. I stopped so that he could talk to me.  
>"Listen. As creepy as that eyes thing was, I gotta say, thanks. I would have died if you hadn't caught me. And, I know there's some bad blood between us… so that's why I'm even more grateful." Lalna sound embarrassed.<p>

"Well, make it up to me by not asking me about…what happened afterwards." Lalna nodded carefully, and I walked back up to Zoey.

"What did he want?" She asked.

"He just wanted to thank me." I told her shortly. She shrugged, and then looked at me.

"Rythian, do you think that it was intentional? That all six of us wound up here?"

"It could be. But it's not the Queen, and so, I don't know anyone else who might have summoned us all to the Nether, and who has the power to do it."

**Power**

The word echoed.

"Oh, shit. I know who had the power to summon. Either Notch, or,"

"He-"

"Zoey. Don't say his name. Names have power." The girl looked at me, fear showing in her eyes.

"But he doesn't exist! He's a legend!"

"That shows you how little you have been told. I should warn you, all legends have a shred of truth to be based on. He is very real."

"Wouldn't Ridge have told us?"

"As good as Ridge is at getting information out of Notch, Notch would never admit that his greatest enemy was still alive."

Zoey stared at me with hollow eyes. "Then how do you know?"

I smiled grimly. "I have a connection even Ridge doesn't know about."

"How?" She asked.

"I can't discuss it here. Maybe later. Maybe." Zoey nodded, and turned towards the others.

"Um…weird question, but does anyone have any chocolate milk?" She asked. Minty handed her some.

"Yeah… but why do you need it?"

"My arm is powered by chocolate milk. Without it, it's just a normal arm." Zoey explained.

"Oh. And what was that echo?" Minty asked. I gulped in some air. I'd fought the Enderdragon many times before, but him, I'd only heard of him in legends. I knew he was real, but I had never thought I would meet him. And it wasn't likely I would live to tell the tale. I knew that. He hated the queen. So my connection to her would infuriate him. He would hate me more than the others. I would die first, and suffer the most. This I knew.

"You guys… I think I know why we're here."

_You're here because I summoned you, of course. Why else would you all have fallen through the same portal? I'm afraid that Rythian Enderborn was right, in both cases."_

I winced as he used my full name. Not only did it remind me of too many bad things, but it was painfully easy for anyone to guess bits of my history that are best kept secret after they heard my last name  
>And what he had just said proved that, just like my Enderside, he could hear my thoughts when he wanted. Or maybe they'd been broadcasted to him, the way they sometimes were. Normally, they only were sent to my Enderside and any major mobs. So, like him.<p>

_"You are not here by coincidence. You are here because I have chosen you to die. But fear not, you will die at the hands of Herobrine."  
><em>  
>Kim screamed as the soulless white eyes appeared. Solid obsidian surrounded us, cutting off our exit. We were trapped with a maniac who wanted to kill us all.<p>

I held my diamond sword in my hands, wishing yet again alchemy hadn't completely failed after the nuke. My red katar would have been much more effective. Lalna held a mining laser, Kim had an emerald sword, Sjin had sapphire, and of course Zoey had a Thaumonomicon sword as well her arm. Minty of course had the sword I had given her.

"Well, Herobrine. I think you picked the wrong group. Look around. Do we look helpless?"

_"Ah, but, Enderborn, half of you would betray each other at the first opportunity. You don't trust each other. You cannot trust each other. And you… you will not help them. I will never let your kind escape."_

_Listen. You shut up about my kind, got it?_

_"Fine. But you cannot trust your companions, Enderborn."  
><em>  
>His words washed over me like a spell. I glanced at Sjin and Lalna, distrust flaring in my chest. It wasn't until Zoey cautiously tapped my forearm that I realized that Herobrine's words held a power. He was making us feel like this. I resented having my emotions messed with. Especially when it was a creep who wanted to kill us doing it.<p>

"Lalna. Sjin. He's mes-" I gagged as pressure rose in my throat. I couldn't breath!

_"I can't have you ruining my plan, Enderborn. You will remain silent. Let your enemies destroy each other, and perhaps you will be next, rather than you watching her suffer, first."  
><em>  
>My face flushed. I still couldn't get any air. I fell to my knees. My head spun. Zoey crouched at my side.<p>

"Rythian?" My hands flew instinctively to my throat. It felt like someone was blowing up a balloon between my ribs.

"Oh, gosh! He's choking you!" That was a little obvious to me.

"What can I do?" She asked.

"Dis-" My voice croaked off. Pressure further rose in my chest.

"Dis, dis what? Diss his hair?"

I shook my head. "Distract-"

"Oh! Hey Herobrine! You look like Granny Bacon's backside!" Herobrine's rage turned to Zoey, and I managed to gasp in some air.

_"Foolish girl. I will kill you first."_

My eyes flared. My vision went red. No one, not even all-powerful ones like Herobrine, threatened Zoey.

"Rythian, your eyes are glowing again." Kim told me.

"Yep! Got it!" I snapped. I was tired of being told that.

"You. Me. Duel. If I lose, well, there are five other people to kill. If I win, obviously we leave."  
><em><br>"Foolish boy. Too heroic. I accept your challenge."  
><em>  
>"Sjin," I began, talking to the farmer because he was the closest me. "If I don't make it, make sure Zoey does." He nodded.<p>

Herobrine drew a blood-red sword, and we walked to the center of the clearing. We danced around, weaving in and out, avoiding each others rapid strikes. Several times, I almost slipped, but would manage to catch my balance again. Herobrine made no such errors. His swordplay was better than mine. I was going to lose.

Our eyes glowed, and I knew my face was lighted by white, the way his was purple.

_Did you ever believe you would leave here alive, Rythian Enderborn? With your parentage? You should have known I would kill you. And you did._

This time, his voice resounded in my head, the way my Enderside's did. At least he didn't say it out loud.

_You won't willingly let me leave, no. But I can beat you._

_Brave words, for a mere man._

_But you know and judge me for the fact that I am no mere man. I am half beast, and that will be enough to beat you.  
><em>  
><em>Is that so, Enderborn? Has your relation to her ever helped you before? Why should it now?<em>

_I have no need of it. And she has never bested me. Why do hate me when we are both her enemies?  
><em>  
><em>Because while you are her enemy, you are too close to one of them.<em>

_I cannot choose my parentage._

_Silence! You will die. I will kill you, not only because I summoned you, but because of your kind._

We continued exchanging blows, until the tip of his sword caught my throat. It didn't go deep, but it was enough to slow me down.

Blood ran down my neck. Behind me, I could barely hear Zoey screaming my name. I could only hear the buzzing in my ears, and the pounding of blood, as, with every heartbeat, more crimson poured from my neck. It wasn't life threatening, if I could beat Herobrine and staunch the tide of blood. If I couldn't…

We exchanged more stinging blows. I caught Herobrine in the side, but it barely slowed him down. In rapid succession, he threw several strikes to my upper body, which I avoided, and then he kneed me in the crotch. I fell instantly to my knees.

"Not…fair." I gasped. Herobrine stood above me.

_Who ever said I was going to fight fair, Rythian Enderborn?_ He said in my mind_. I will not kill you, yet. I will make you watch me kill your friends, make them die believing you too, are dead. You will die knowing you failed completely to protect them_. The hilt of his sword slammed into my neck, and I slumped to the ground. I couldn't move, his attack had paralyzed me. Zoey screamed. I wanted to tell her I was okay, but I couldn't speak. I wanted to stand up and finish the fight, but I was hopelessly unable to do so.

**Lalna's POV**

Their blows were almost to fast to see. Lights glowed, purple and soulless white, as the fight spun in circles. It was rare that a strike would land. Rythian's black cape swirled, and the luminescent eyes on the back glowed like his own, but less bright. Purple spots danced around him, as though he was charging the air with them. The dark shadowy tendrils that swirled around him grew, until he appeared cloaked in them. I glanced down and saw that they surrounded me as well, but less consistently.

Their blades clashed, bluish on red and sparks flew around them. Rythian's face was contorted from concentration. Herobrine seemed relaxed, and blocked any of Rythian's strikes with no apparent effort.

The mage was tiring rapidly. His attacks slowed, his guard dropped half an inch. Herobrine took advantage of this, grazing Rythian's throat with the tip of his sword. A crimson flood poured from the wound, not too quickly, but it would have to be patched soon, of there would be repercussions.

Zoey called his name, over and over again, but the mage ignored her, never looking away from his opponents eyes. The shadows spread up my legs, weakening me. I realized they were coils of Herobrine's magic, attacking us and taking our strength before he was even done his battle with Rythian.

Rythian, who wasn't doing so great. He was slower now then even before, and, though he had succeeded in cutting Herobrine's side, the demon wasn't any weaker than before. He was using the energy he took from us, of course.

Rythian dodged a few strikes, which wound up putting him closer to Herobrine. The demon's knee flashed up, and Rythian collapsed. The thing had kneed him between the legs!

"Cheating little shit!" I muttered, wanted to do something, but rooted in place by the black stuff.

"Not… fair." Rythian choked out.

The mage was on his knees, at the mercy of Herobrine. Yet even when death stared him in the face, Rythian faced his opponent defiantly, with his head up and his purple eyes locked on Herobrine's white ones.

Herobrine stood there for a while, seeming to gloat over Rythian's defeat. Then his sword flashed, and the hilt connected with the mage's neck. He slumped to the ground, and I assumed that his neck had been broken.

I heard Zoey scream, and I stared in shock at the mage on the ground. How could it be that Rythian had been beaten, and killed, so easily? It wasn't fair that he should die for the five of us. He hadn't even liked me! Or Sjin! Why had he given his life for us, as well as Kim, and Minty, and…Zoey? Zoey. He'd been protecting Zoey.

**Sjin's POV**

"Rythian?" I breathed. No response. So breath stirred his chest. His eyes appeared glazed over, staring straight at us, though he was dead. The glowing had ceased. They were back to just their normal shade of  
>violet. His cape was in a rumbled heap at his side. His mouth was slightly parted.<p>

Zoey screamed, and screamed, and screamed. Tears flowed freely from her blue eyes. Horrible sobs wracked her body.

I stared at the white-eyed demon. For a little too long.

_Sjin. Why fight for those you barely know?_

I didn't know how it spoke in my head. I also didn't know how to answer.

I tried just thinking my response.

_**Because I'm fighting for her. **_I thought of Minty, with her blond hair shinning, a smile on her face. The way I had seen her before we'd been pulled into this whole mess.

_And them?_ It asked, motioning to Zoey, and Lalna, and Kim.

You cannot tempt me into destroying them. I told Herobrine.

_I don't have to_. It told me.

imaginary pins were forced into it. Pain became my only sensation. Pain everywhere. My fingers twitched, even though I hadn't told them to. Something like the pin rolled through my head, pushing me away from control. It didn't matter that I hadn't wanted my fingers to twitch, because it did.

_Sjin! Fight him!_ Another voice, one I knew. At least, I knew how it would sound out loud.

_**Rythian?**_ How was the dead mage speaking in my head?

_Who else? Fight him off! I know it's hard, but you have to!_ Like I hadn't tried that. Herobrine was stronger. More powerful.

_**Can't… to… strong.**_ I thought, forcing them through barriers Herobrine was throwing up in my mind.

_Sjin! Think of Minty._

Tears stung my eyes when he said that.

_**Rythian, when the fight is over, tell Minty I tried. I can't sto-**_

Vertigo rose in me, and bile bubbled in my throat. But it wasn't me that swallowed it. It was Herobrine. I could see my friends, but it wasn't me that looked at them. I shivered, and that was the last thing I did.

**Rythian's POV**

The bonus to being stuck to the ground by magic was that it stopped the blood that had been flowing from my neck. I realized, too late of course, that the black tendrils weren't harmless. They had stolen my strength, and the strength of the others during the battle. Herobrine had used that strength to beat me, falling me with two blows. One between my legs. I was more wounded to my pride then my body.

I heard horrible shriek of pain, and shrugged to look in the direction it had came from. Sjin's fingers spasmed, and his muscles tensed beneath his skin. I recognized the look of entrapment on his face. Something was attacking his mind.

_You're doing this!_ I called to Herobrine.

_Silence, you useless, pathetic excuse for an opponent._

_You kneed me in the crotch! I'm sorry that I'm not immune to that!_

_Shut up, worthless one. It's not just the terrible fight._

_No, it's the fact that my dad was a towering black thing that wants nothing more but to find me so he can carry out his threat of killing me. Now, leave Sjin alone!_

_Never, Enderborn._

Sjin continued to struggle, the tendons on his neck popping. White spread like frost through his eyes. Pure, glowing white.

_Sjin! Fight him!_ I thought desperately.

_**Rythian?**_

_Who else? Fight him off! I know it's hard, but you have to_! Desperation filled me. Herobrine couldn't be allowed to have another instrument. He was almost too strong to start with!

_**Can't… to… strong**_. Sjin's mental voice was weak.

I remembered what always gave me strength when fighting my Enderside. Thinking of Zoey. The girl I loved. _Sjin! Think of Minty._

_**Rythian, when the fight is over, tell Minty I tried. I can't sto-  
><strong>_  
>The telepathic voice in my head was cut off abruptly.<p>

_Shit! No! Sjin!_ I thought desperately. All I got was an answer from Herobrine. An echo. Two voices. Herobrine's own, and Sjin's.

_**Too late, Enderborn.  
><strong>_  
><strong>Lalna's POV<strong>

It was uncomfortably awkward. Zoey was sobbing, Kim stood next to me, her hand clenching mine. Sjin stood behind to me. Herobrine was before us, and behind him, the body of the mage that had given his life to try to save us.

Behind me, Sjin shuddered and screamed. I thought it was just from fear and shock, and didn't turn around. I didn't realize something was wrong until his hands were locked around my throat, and I could see that his eyes were completely white. He'd been possessed! How was that even possible?

"Sjin! Let me go!" I hissed, as that was all I could do, do to lack of oxygen. He shook his head, and laughed maniacally.

"Herobrine is rising. You will be one of the first destroyed, Lalna." I shook him off, and gripped his shoulders.

"Sjin! What the hell?"

"You cannot stop me." He intoned. I stared at him in shock. What… how had this happened?

Sjin slashed his sapphire sword at me. I had no blade to parry with, so I caught the blade, which sliced instantly into my hand. At least it was my burned hand and not my uninjured one.

My hand burned, and a long slash was left on the fleshy part of my hand. I could see damaged nerves, and blood pooling in between the pinkish red flesh. My glove was useless. I turned back to Sjin, and raced towards Rythian. The fallen mage's sword was my only hope.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten about Herobrine. The white-eyed creep stood between me and the sword. I refused to view the whole picture; all that was behind Herobrine was a sword. Rythian's body wasn't there.

Herobrine let me pass; watching what was going on with curiosity, like a movie. I fought the urge to swear at him as I passed again, the sword tipping strangely in my left hand. It felt unbalanced. Rythian's grip was worn in at a strange spot on the hilt.

Sjin leapt at me, and I drew back, until he pressed me to a corner. The sword hung uselessly in my grasp. My last hope was gone. Between the strange grip and having to use my left hand, I could barely lift it.

Sjin's sword rested against my throat, its razor-sharp blade glittering in the harsh red light of the Nether.

"You will die, Lalna." He told me, and I believed him. This wasn't Sjin. This was Herobrine. He would kill me. And yet I couldn't kill him! To me, this was still my friend!

I couldn't kill Sjin. But Sjin could kill me.

Kim must have sensed my weakness. She ran up behind Sjin, brandishing her emerald sword.

But Sjin heard her approach. His sword stayed fixed on my throat, pressing upwards, keeping my head tilted up. I had to strain to see Kim.

Sjin calmly pulled a pistol out of his pocket, and fired it towards Kim. She gasped, and stumbled backwards, before falling. A dark red spot appeared on the silk fabric of her red kimono, right in line with her belly button.

Zoey raced to her side. "Kim!" She shrieked. Zoey had no healing equipment with her. I knew that. Kim- no. I refused to think about it.

I looked back to Sjin, who just as calmly as he had pulled it out, put the pistol back in his pocket.

"You son of a bitch!" I shouted, using my still-bleeding palm to push his sword off my throat. Blood slicked the blade, and I realized he'd cut me with it, even though he hadn't killed me.

I thrust Rythian's sword towards Sjin, and it sunk into his stomach. Instantly, the white disappeared from his eyes. They returned to there normal color.

"Lalna?" He rasped. Blood pumped openly from the hole the blade had torn, soaking the white fabric of his suit, flowing onto the ground, creating a crimson pool. I dropped the diamond sword, and it clattered on the netherack floor.

"Sjin!" I cried, horrified at what I had done. His eyes rolled into his head, and he collapsed. Blood pooled beside him, and it stained his half-frozen fingers.

"Sjin! I'm sorry. I'm so sorry..." My voice trailed. His chest stilled. Blood stopped pumping out, instead just running, like a faucet. His heartbeats had stopped.

"Minty…" The blond girl stood, staring in shock at Sjin. And me.

"Oh, Notch. Minty! I'm so sorry… Minty, I didn't want to kill him…" Horror, felt towards myself, paralyzed me. I had killed Sjin. And it had been Sjin. When he'd looked at me, the hole in his stomach causing torrents of blood with every beat of his heart, it had been Sjin.

Sadness plagued Minty's gaze. "It's okay, Lalna. Sjin… he would have wanted that. Rather than hurting his friends."

"But… I didn't kill Herobrine. I killed Sjin."

"No. He was Herobrine when you did that."

"Lalna!" Zoey shrieked from ten feet away. I ran to her side. Kim lay on the ground before her, far too pale. Her chest heaved with the effort it took her to breathe.

"Lalna, I can't do anything. Unless you have supplies, she won't make it." The red-head whispered in my ear. Zoey's eyes were wet. Tears stung mine. Zoey backed off, giving me some room.

"Kim. Kim, what am I going to do without you?" I asked. She smiled weakly.

"Wait. Wait for me, Dr. Lalna. I'll wait for you, because I love you. I did it for you. I saved you. Don't waste it." I nodded.

"I love you too, Kim." She took another rattling breath, and then stilled.

"No! Kim! Kim, please. Don't die. Don't die. Please Kim!" I whimpered, horrified. "Kim!" I stared at Herobrine.

"You did this."

Zoey gasped, and looked at me. "I don't know if this will upset you, but Rythian's alive."

I frowned. "Herobrine wouldn't have let him live."

_Are you so sure about that, Lalna?_ The voice echoed in my mind. It was definitely Rythian's.

_Do you really think he'd kill me that easily? _The Mage asked dryly. I had to admit it was improbable, and I had doubted it at first… but that wasn't fair! Kim and Sjin were dead, and Rythian and Zoey still had each other. But did I really wish the pain I felt on Zoey, when she had the chance to be happy?

_Leave Zoey out of this. If you want to resent me, fine. Not her._ Rythian told me.

_**How could you tell what I was thinking?**_

_Easy. You've left your mind wide open, and, with the strength of you thinking that, you may as well light up a neon sign to anyone who can normally hear thoughts. I can, Zoey can't, Herobrine can, really any major mobs. And Endermen._

_**Then why can I hear you now?**_

_Because I'm sending my thoughts directly to you._

_**And what about Endermen?**_

_I'll put it this way. If you thought as hard about how you would defeat those things as you did about my being alive, you wouldn't stand a chance. They would know your plan almost before you did._

_**Then what about Herobrine?**_

_I'm shielding our conversation from him. It's easy, because he's gloating. He plans to kill me after everyone else is dead, and he wants you three to suffer as well. He doesn't know that Zoey and you know I'm alive.  
><em>  
><em><strong>What about Minty?<strong>_

_She's too shielded. I could break through, but it would only weaken her from the fight her mental barriers would put up. Zoey always has hers up, but she lets me through. You… you need to work on that skill._

_**Thanks. Anyways, how can you do this if Zoey can't?**_

_It's just an ability I've always had. A gift._ Rythian's mental voice was bitter, as though the gift was something terrible.

_**So, what next?**_

_How can I tell you that when I'm pinned to the ground be magic? Your plan has to be something you can follow. I can't tell you that! _Rythian had a point.

_**If we distract him, would the magic holding you down lessen?**_

_I very much doubt it. And if it did, it likely wouldn't be enough for me to escape because of it. Remember, he has all of our combined strength. I cut the spell he had cast once I was on the ground, but other than that, he has ALL the energy and strength he took from us._

_**Excellent.  
><span>**_  
><em><strong>Guys? I know you're busy with your conversation, but I think Herobrine's getting suspicious, we should do something physically, not just mentally.<strong>_ Zoey told us. I had forgotten she was part of this discussion. She'd fallen silent soon after I'd joined.

_If you can, get Minty to open her defenses for just a moment. I can keep you mentally connected so you don't have to voice everything._ Rythian told us. I nodded, and Zoey raced over to the blond. A little while later, I heard Minty's voice.

_~Yo! Does this actually work?~_

_**Yep! Helpfully, but also creepily, Rythian managed to set this up.  
><strong>_  
><em>~O-Kay! That is really creepy, so no wonder Rythian can do this!~<em>

I almost laughed, until I heard the next statement.

_I might not be talking the whole time, but this conversation still runs through my head, you know. That's the only way you can hear each other. So save your gossiping about me for later. _Rythian told us crossly.

_**Oops. Sorry, Rythian.**_

_No. It's okay. I rather like scaring people._

_**Alrighty then! That's not… creepy. Oh shit. This sucks!**_

_I would laugh, but I can't._

_**You can't even laugh? Herobrine's an ass!  
><strong>_  
><em>Well, me laughing would kinda ruin me seeming dead.<br>_  
><em><strong><span>True…<span>**_

_**Okay! Enough chat! We need to kick Herobrine's butt**_! Zoey told us.

_~Hello… we need to plan, Proasheck. That's why Rythian… I don't even know what Rythian did. He did something.~  
><em>  
><em><strong>Set up a mental chat?<strong>_ I suggested.

_You made my head sound like a chat room_. He told me in disgust. _The one thing I can tell you is, Herobrine is not easy to kill. Harder than the Enderdragon. Harder even than Israphel.  
><em>  
><em><strong>We're fu-<strong>_ I started to think.

~_No! We aren't! We have a hope! Xephos and Honeydew defeated Israphel, and we can defeat Herobrine!~_ Minty insisted.

_Hopefully. But know this. He can only be killed by a direct hit to the heart. No where else will even affect him._ Rythian told us, his mental voice was dark. He didn't believe we would win.

_**We can do it! Zoey. Stick to the sword. Avoid letting him know about your arm's powers until you have no other choice, okay?  
><strong>_  
>~<em>Hey… Rythian, thanks for the sword, but I'd rather use Sjin's.~<em> Minty said hesitantly.

_Sure._ I glanced at the diamond blade in my hand. There was no point in symbolically switching to Kim's blade. Diamond would do, as I wouldn't have any luck either way.

~_Well, let's go.~ _Minty declared We nodded, and charged Herobrine.

The first thing that went wrong was I dropped the sword and had to pick it up, putting me a good ten seconds behind. Good thing we didn't have a time related plan.

Zoey was pinned against a wall in about the twenty seconds more it took me to get there. Rythian didn't say anything, but I could feel the terror and rage he felt. I charged at Herobrine, aiming for a stab to the back, but he turned around and parried it easily, opening my side up for attack and slashing his sword against my ribs.

During that time, Zoey struck him in the side of the head with her arm. When in doubt, revert back to hitting people in the head with a blunt object.

Herobrine wasn't dazed, but he was surprised enough that we could get out of the corner. Minty then charged, the already blood-covered sapphire sword gripped firmly in her hand.

She swung the sword towards Herobrine, shrieking something I couldn't understand, but there were a lot of words that her mother wouldn't have approved of involved.

_"__Minty Minute. Do you-"_

"Shut the hell up you perverted little son of a bitch!" She shrieked, swinging her sword again. Herobrine blocked them quite easily.

Meanwhile, I pretty much felt like crap. My cut-and-burned hand throbbed, my ribs burned as sweat dripped into the wound. My breaths came in ragged gasps.

Zoey, seeing that Minty could handle herself for a moment, ran over to see if I needed any help. I shook her off, but in the process, I raised my arm high enough for her to see.

_**Um…no.**_ _**Stand still.**_ Zoey ran to Rythian's side, and used her sword to cut a length of his cape off. Then she ran back over to me, and tied the cape around my chest.

_**Thanks.**_ I thought, and she nodded then ran back to Minty's side

I ran after her, determined to still take on Herobrine, even without the use of my right hand.

Herobrine batted my sword out of my hand, and it skittered across the ground, ending up about ten feet from me.

Cursing, I pulled out my mining laser and fired a few shots at him. Then I remembered what Rythian had said.

_Nothing but a stab to the heart._

"Shit." I muttered. My mining laser was useless. It would be up to Zoey and Minty to win. At least until I could sneak off and grab the sword.

I tried to head off in that direction, and was met by a blood-red sword, directly in line with my throat_. "Going somewhere, Dr. Lalna?"_ I growled in frustration. _"Or should I say, Dr. Lalnable Hector?"_ I flinched. How much did he know about that journal? Probably more than me.

**Rythian's POV**

_"__Lalnable Hector."_ What? That was new. Lalna look pretty terrified at the mention of that name.

_Lalna? How much do you know about what he just called you? _I was kind of afraid to know the answer.

_**Not much. I've read a journal supposedly from 2018, signed Lalnable Hector. I don't know how to prevent it, because I don't know how it happened!"**_

I glanced at the scene. With Herobrine scorning Lalna, he was wide open, and Zoey and Minty were creeping towards him, swords ready.

_Lalna! Keep him distracted! _I called.

"H-how do you know that?" Lalna managed to choke out

_"__I have my ways." _Herobrine told him.

As he said that, Minty reached between Herobrine's arm and neck and grazed her sword against his throat. Zoey pressed her sword against his back, lining it up perfectly with his heart.

"Gotcha." Minty hissed.

Herobrine looked shocked for a moment. Then he threw back his head and laughed, startling Lalna. _"Maybe I have lost, but I will respawn. He won't."_

Zoey realized he was talking about me. "Rythian!" She screamed. But she couldn't leave her position. I felt a wave of magic gather itself, threatening to overthrow even Herobrine's control and crush me. At the same time, the restraining magic on me eased off. "Look away, Zoey. Please. Look away." I begged, not wanting her to see this.

_"__You think I didn't sense your little mental conversation, Enderborn?" _Herobrine scorned, malice glowing in his eyes. _"I couldn't hear it, but I could sense it!"_

"Look away, Zoey," I sobbed, curling into a ball, knowing fully well what was coming. I thought of all the things that I'd wanted to say. Particularly one thing. I'd never tell Zoey I loved her. That wasn't fair now.

"The moment you kill him, the magic gets released and I go. If you don't, well, it's the same result. So stab him in the back and _look away._" My voice cracked. Zoey sobbed and drove her sword through Herobrine's back.

Instantly, the wave of magic crashed down onto me. My body felt like it was being submerged in hot acid. An inhuman shriek ripped itself from my throat. The tendons on my neck popped. My face screwed up in pain. Unwilling tears leaked through my closed eyelids. Zoey screamed my name, but I couldn't feel her gaze. I knew Lalna and Minty wouldn't let her look.

I opened my eyes, as I had to see that Herobrine was defeated. I screamed, again and again, my throat becoming hoarse. But I couldn't stop. More tears flowed down my face. Herobrine faded, and his magic did not. My eyes glowed brighter and brighter until they grew hot in my head. Desperately, I threw what remained of my cape over my trembling body. I didn't want anyone to see the suffering our victory was causing me.

The burning in my eyes faded, and I felt hands shake my already trembling shoulders. Pain still wracked my body.

"Rythian!" Zoey's voice. Why had she come? Why had they let her?

"Zoey. Please, just-" My voice croaked into a hiss as a fresh wave of burning pain rolled over me. I screamed as agony seized its hold on my mind, and Zoey shook my shoulders frantically.

"Rythian!" She cried again.

"Go! Zoey, just, go." I managed to force out.

"No! I won't leave you. Not again." She promised, though I wished she wouldn't. My shoulders stiffened with the effort it took to hold back another scream. "I won't leave, Rythian. You don't leave people you love." I flinched when she said love. I had already promised myself I wouldn't tell her about my feelings for her, because it wasn't fair if I was going to die. But if I hadn't, I probably would have spilled the beans right then and there.

"Rythian, I love you. Please, tell me the truth. Do you love me?' She was asking hard questions now. I wanted nothing more but to answer truthfully, but how could I do that to her? "Rythian?"

I broke. "Yes." I croaked. Pain stilled wracked me, and every breath was getting harder and harder to draw in. I felt dizzy and weak. This was it. It wasn't just pain anymore. My body was shutting itself down. I was dying.

Hands gripped my cape and drew it off my shoulders and away from my face, before I could grip it again and stop Zoey from removing it. She looked at me, with tears running down her face.

"Zoey. Promise me that you'll move on. Don't dwell on the past." She shook her head.

"I can't, Rythian. I'm in love and always will be." She told me. Her lips met mine, and I should have been happy, but the darkness was closing in rapidly and I could no longer feel the softness of her kiss or hear her heartbroken sobs. I closed my eyes and let the current of black sweep me away.

**Lalna's POV**

I didn't watch Rythian die. I couldn't. Zoey went to him, and, though I knew Rythian would want me to, I didn't stop her. She deserved to speak to him before he died, I believed that. But I understood why he didn't want her there. Herobrine hadn't just killed him. From the sounds of it, he'd tortured him horribly and made Rythian wish the darkness would take him quicker.

"Rythian? Rythian?" Zoey's voice was frantic. I went over to where the red head knelt before the fallen mage. Before I even got there, I knew he was dead. He was too still.

I knelt beside her, and felt for a pulse I knew wouldn't be there. I put my arm around Zoey's shoulders, hoping to comfort her and not be too awkward.

"I'm so sorry. He's in the Aether now, pain free again." I muttered. She only sobbed. I cried too, for Kim, for Sjin, and even for Rythian.

We found our way out of the Nether relatively quickly, and parted our ways, off to mourn the dead.

I buried Kim under the shade of a birch tree. I would visit that place, every day, bringing fresh flowers. Sometimes I'd talk to her. Other times, I just sat there, pondering what she was doing while she waited for me. I would wait for her. How could I move on from Kim when she'd given her life to save mine? That wasn't fair to her.

No, I would wait until I joined her in the Aether, even if it took a hundred years. I had promised, and I wouldn't break that promise.

I sometimes wondered just how much about Lalnable Hector Herobrine knew. I knew that it had something to do with me, but I didn't know how. Would I go crazy and start using Testificates as an energy source? Without Kim, the possibility was all too real.

But I decided that if I didn't understand, I was better off just letting it come, and dealing with it then. What else could I really do?

I also decided not to research the strange things I had seen in the Nether. They were Rythian's secrets, and I would respect that. Wouldn't I expect the same?

**So. Enjoy your feels. Again, I don't know about scary. But I killed 50% of the people! Happy Halloween everybody!**

**~Featherflower**


	8. Chapter 8 ACTUAL HALLOWEEN FIC

**I screwed this one up, and this is my second chance. (Or something like that.) My apologies for the terminologies and descriptions that were wrong in this, I'm a noob, and didn't actually know all the facts about what I was writing...thank for helping me out, Spirit. That was embarrassing.**

**So...my update is in the middle of the week. Brilliant. So, anyways, I was told my Halloween fanfic wasn't scary. I knew it wasn't scary, to be honest. Though a fun fact you should know is the death count for that last one was formerly 2. I wrote it about 2 or 3 weeks ago, and only Kim and Sjin died. But then, Friday or Saturday last week, I had the day off, and I decided, what the hell. I'm bored. So I killed Rythian in a horribly painful way. YAY!**

**Anyways, this one is NOT MEANT TO BE SCARY! It's meant to be funny. Enjoy!**

~Featherflower

Rythian's POV

Zoey was hunched over the table, intent on getting some sort of stain out of the wood. I already knew the stain had been there forever, and wasn't coming out of the wood anytime soon.

It was a fresh, late October morning. At Zoey's request, the castle was fully decorated for Halloween. Bones hung from the walls and littered the floor. Clay sculptures decorated the rooms. They were oddly realistic sculptures of all the monsters that people joked about. Vampires, (No, they didn't sparkle) werewolves, all that jazz. Several Jack-o-Lanterns sat in the windows.

I glanced back to Zoey, who was still fully absorbed in her scrubbing. A creepy smile fixed itself on my lips.

Creeping up to the table as quietly and carefully as possible, I crossed the room to where Zoey stood. She stayed completely fixed on her task.

"BOO!" I yelled, tapping her shoulders lightly.

"AAAAHH!" She shrieked, turning around to face me. I burst out laughing "Oh my goodness, Rythian! You gave me a heart attack!"

"How did I give you a heart attack by yelling boo?" I asked, feeling puzzled. I'd been dating Zoey for a must a few months now, and this wasn't the first time I'd done this. But this was the first time she'd jumped and shrieked like that.

"It's four days until Halloween, Rythian. I'm a little jumpy." She told me, laughing.

"Seriously? It's the scariest day of the year!" She declared, staring at me like I was from outer space, which I wasn't. Xephos, maybe. Not me.

"I've never been scared of Halloween." I told her. Yep! 27 years old and never been scared of Halloween. I must be an exception to most rules out there.

"Are you serious?" Zoey asked me, looking disbelieving.

"Zoey, my life until I met you was pretty much utterly terrifying. From thirteen to about twenty-one, my life was _living hell_. I would honestly like to see Halloween top what I've seen." I hadn't told Zoey the exact details of my life, particularly not between the ages I had just mentioned, but she knew enough to know I wasn't lying.

"Oh, is that a challenge to the spirit of Halloween?" She asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess so!" I exclaimed, grinning maniacally.

"O-kay! It's you're life… or _soul_." She told me jokingly.

"Well…anyways…I'm going out to look for a new place to mine. You have  
>fun with that stain!" I told her.<p>

"Watch out for the monsters!" She giggled. I held up a sword, and she sighed.

"That's not what I meant."

"Well, the other ones don't exist." I told her, strapping a pickaxe to my belt and leaving the stronghold, which we had built where the Temporary Base Camp had been after Zoey'd had a slight accident with a time machine.

I went where my feet took me, which was how I got distracted enough to run into Lalna, knocking us both off our feet.

"Oh! Sorry about that, Rythian!" Lalna exclaimed, scrambling to his feet. I struggled to get off the ground, off-balanced due to the sword and pickaxe on my bet. Lalna held out his hand and helped me up.

"No problem. I wasn't paying attention to where I was going. Where am I?" At some point, an encounter like this would have been fatal, for one of us, if not both. But now, we got along quite well.

"Well, it's kinda strange that I'm here…but Blackrock, er, the crater, it's right over there." Lalna pointed to where the front wall and the logo were barely visible. That was all that remained of the castle.

I shivered, the crater and the thought of it always gave me the creeps. I wasn't even near it, yet the sound of that explosion echoed in my head. I took a deep breath.

_It's okay. Zoey's okay, she survived the nuke. She's probably still trying to get the stain out of the table._

"Um… Rythian?" Lalna asked, quietly.

"Sorry. I just, I don't like being near the crater." Lalna nodded.

"Well, I'll see you around!" He told me. I nodded and headed off to look for a place to mine, avoiding where Blackrock used to be.

I was quite satisfied with the new mineshaft, though I wound up grateful that hadn't mined straight down, because, as it turns out, there was a whole lot of lava under the stairs I had made to get under the surface. Falling in the lava would have pissed me off.

Zoey was right, in a way. The mobs did attack me, and my sword broke  
>on the last Enderman that came after me.<p>

It was twilight when I finally could see the Stronghold again. I walked towards the door, but, a few steps before I got through the doorway, I heard a dull click, and the ground fell out from under me.

"OH _SHIT!_" I yelled as I plummeted towards the ground. Hopefully I'd survive the fall.

I landed in an ungraceful heap on the ground. I groaned in pain and hauled myself to my feet. I could have nerd poled back up to the top of the shaft, but there was a tunnel leading outwards, and I was curious. I also didn't want to do something as embarrassing as nerd poling.

So I walked hesitantly down the tunnel, the echoing sounds of my footsteps and the occasional drip of water were the only noise. It was rather dark, as no torches lit the passageway. On the bright side, I could see just fine, and even if my Enderborn abilities hadn't included night vision, my eyes glowed bright enough to see by.

I walked a little further, and the air started to smell of smoke. The further I went, the more it smelled like that.

Not too late to turn around. I thought to myself. But I wanted to find out why this trap had been laid!

The smoke took the moisture out of the air rather quickly. It also made my eyes water and burn. The acrid smoke was starting to hurt my throat as well. If it didn't clear up soon, I'd have no choice but to leave the tunnel.

But I didn't want to do that. I wanted to find out what was in the tunnel, other than just the gray haze.

Traveling through the thickening layer of smoke wasn't fun. I couldn't see, and the purple of my eyes only lit out more layers of the gray smog. Wonderful. My lungs burned, and tears poured from my eyes as they tried to rid themselves from the burning feeling the smoke was causing.

I would have to turn around and do the nerd pole thing.

But, just as I turned, something jumped out at me. I caught a glimpse of a silver blade before it faded back into the smoke. But I could feel the gaze, burning itself into my mind. The thing wasn't gone, and it was still after me.

"Aw, shit. My sword just broke. This isn't a great time…" I said, knowing the thing likely wouldn't care. I heard a hissing noise.

"Oh, come on. Everyone knows that creepers don't carry blades…" I began, "…unless you're not a creeper."

The smoke was clearing, and I could see an purple face. It looked a bit like a pumpkin...

"Oh, crap. I thought Strawfingers was Duncan and Kim's thing." I protested. Strawfingers just kept approaching.

"Shit. I'm just gonna go…" The demon scarecrow lunged faster then I would have thought possible. It was shorter than I thought I would be.

The blade was slashed across my forearm, which I just managed to lift fast enough to spare my throat from being slit. I went momentarily cross-eyed trying to look at the sharp edge of the sword.

"Okay! Holy crap! I've gotta go!" I yelped, my heart pounding. I wasn't scared, but I was sort of panicky. After all, Strawfingers was supposed to be a legend!

I slipped past the scarecrow and ran further down the tunnel, listening for sounds of pursuit.

I pulled a bandage out of my pocket, grateful that Zoey had made me put a bunch in them a few days ago, when I'd come home pretty beat up looking, and she'd thought I was going to die, or something. Really, you should have seen the mobs. I hadn't even been injured compared to them.

But I wrapped the white cloth around my arm, staining the virgin cloth with a dark spot of red.

Then I pulled my pickaxe off my belt, figuring I could probably use it as a weapon, if I had to.

By now, the smoke had completely cleared, though I never quite knew where it was coming from. So, seeing no reason to turn around and face the crazy scarecrow with a knife, I continued on my way through the tunnel.

The next person I saw, I recognized instantly.

"Duncan!" Did you plan this?" I asked. Duncan looked at me, his red eyes glowing. But…son of a bitch. Duncan didn't have red eyes. And they didn't glow.

"Duncan. What happened to _you_?" I asked. "You get bit by a radioactive spider?" I figured it was more likely that one of his experiments went horribly wrong. If he wasn't faking it.

Duncan bared his teeth. They glistened with saliva, but what caught my eye was the fangs.

"Oh, damn it. I just got attacked by Strawfingers, or something like him, so I can't even say those are fake." I declared, looking for a way out. I really didn't want to punch Duncan full of holes with a pickaxe; I had to find an escape route. Unfortunately, it was either go back to the psychotic scarecrow with a knife, or face Count Duncula. My life sucked.

"Rythian Enderborn." Duncan hissed.

"H-How do you know my last name? I-I never told you my last name!" I stammered. Duncan only grinned, making his sharply pointed teeth even more obvious.

"I have my waysss." He told me.

"That hissing is annoying me already." I declared, bitterly remembering the sound of the Queen's voice in my head. She hissed the exact same way that Duncan just had.

"Isss it, Rythian?"

"Um, yes. So could you stop?" I asked hopefully. Duncan only stared at me, and was that, _hunger _in his eyes? Of course. He was a freaking vampire, if this wasn't a joke. He _was _hungry. But not for a sandwich. For _blood_.

"Not likely, Rythian." He declared, his eyes not looking at my face, of course, but slightly below it.

"Okay, well, if you won't stop hissing, could you at least let me go?" I asked hopefully, tightening my grip on the pickaxe and steeling my nerves.

"Oh, but what'sss the fun in that?" He asked me, licking his teeth and approaching me. He turned my around so that my back was against the stone wall. He then reached out and ripped the pickaxe out of my grip.

"Oh, shit." I muttered. Duncan laughed, pinning me to the wall. He lunged towards my neck, and I ducked at the last possible second, and he smashed his face into the wall. I would have chuckled, but I was too busy getting away from the wall and grabbing the pickaxe off the ground.

"Try it, Rythian. I will not misssss twice." I believed him, and took off running, for the second time tonight. I was, admittedly, starting to get a little scared. I didn't like being cut up and having people try to eat me. Or rather, suck my blood. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't taste great either, with the amount of Enderman taint flowing through it. Or maybe, it was a delicacy! Okay, I was clearly losing it. A _delicacy? _Geez.

I really saw no choice but to keep going through this tunnel, as now Count freaking Duncula _and _Strawfingers the demonic scarecrow were behind me.

I was doing fine until the ground fell out from under me again.

"This feels like déjà vu!" I exclaimed when I hit the ground. Internally, I was freaked. What would I encounter _this time? _Would I make it past the _thing? _My breath was a shallow, panicky gasp.

And then I saw the flash of red hair.

"Zoey! Oh, thank _Notch!_" I cried, running over to her and throwing my arms around her. But then I looked twice.

"Oh…my…Notch. _Zoey?_" I asked, holding her out at arm's length. She looked terrible, and I wasn't just being mean. There were dark shadows under her eyes. Her hair was lank and somewhat damp. Foam bubbled around her lips. Her eyes were dull, the green view screen cracked.

"Oh, my goodness, Zoey, what happened to you?" I asked, horror filling my chest. She only moaned.

_"__Zoey?" _I asked again, terrified. She shook my hands off her shoulders, and took a step towards me.

_If Duncan was a vampire, what did Zoey resemble right now?_

The answer was simply. The living dead. A zombie.

"Oh…shit." I whispered, my throat suddenly dry. Zoey took another step towards me, moaning softly.

She had me backed against a wall in no time.

"Zoey…what's going on?" She didn't answer. I had my pickaxe in my hands, but my arms were like lead. This was my girlfriend! Not a mob!

She closed in until her face with directly in front of mine. She let loose a gurgling growl. Then, just as I was about to go into panic mode, _again, _she grinned.

"Thought you didn't get scared of Halloween, Enderboy." She whispered.

"What? This was a prank? Oh my-" Zoey planted her lips against mine, effectively shutting me up. I heard two thuds behind me, and when Zoey pulled away, I saw Duncan and Kim standing there. Kim had a fluxy pumpkin in her hands.

"Kim… Strawfingers was looking a little short." I laughed.

"You thought Kim was Strawfingers?" Zoey asked me.

"Yeah…"

"Well, at least you learned your lesson. Don't challenge the Spirit of Halloween." She declared in a creepy voice.

"I didn't learn anyth-" she cut me off with another kiss.

"What was that?" She asked coyly.

"Nothing… unless I get another kiss for arguing." Everybody just laughed.

"Come on, Enderboy. We'll see about that kiss once we're back at the Stronghold."

**So…my ideas were from the Yogs' twitter accounts. PumpKim, Count Duncula, Zombie ProoOOOooasheck, and Scarythian. I couldn't work with Scarythian, so he was my victim of choice. I could have put Sjin the Werewolf dude and Hannibal Lecterford, but I figured that I had enough. It was just supposed to be a short little fic.**

****If I'm supposed to write poling polling, I apologize. I looked it up in the dictionary, but pole is a noun. Not a verb. So it wouldn't tell me the answer. And it's fairly early and some people (who I've been asking,) haven't answered me yet. So I guessed. (Last time I guessed I had the name of a Youtuber instead of Nerd Pole. JJ, me. JJ. I also said Strawfingers had an orange face. But thankfully for me, the flux rocks. Enough said.****

**~Featherflower**


	9. Chapter 9

**So...I'm bored again. And writing again. Bad combination, but it always seems to happen. Shame. No, this isn't another death and destruction fic, so don't panic. If you haven't noticed, these one-shots have 3 distinct categories.**

**AU Horrible death: Chapters 1-2, Chapter 5, Chapter 7**

**Fluff and somewhat storyline, Zoethian: Chapter 4, Chapter 8 (Sort of), Chapter 6. this one.**

**Backstory: Chapter 3, working on another one, which may wind up posted separately, as it's a songfic of Override (A), and I might (Read: Probably), have to put it under a different rating.**

** All my stories are slightly AU, because Duncan and Kim are in them, and everyone else! And Duncan and Kim left the Tekkit world, didn't they?**

** Another thing is, I put some very harsh opinions on good parenting, so, you've been warned. So, I'm not trying to upset people, that's just what my dad always says. There is a mid-chapter author's note to warn you guys at that point, because I _really _don't want to make people sad or anything like that. So it's what I've been raised to believe. (Please note, I'm not even a guy. I'm a girl. FemToby!)**

** So, yeah! That's my amazing author's note! Have fun, this sucks, don't judge me.**

**~Featherflower**

The screaming woke me up again. Zoey rolled over to face me. "Your turn." She declared. I sat up and stretched. Why was it so common that our 12 year old daughter had nightmares? I don't know. They'd just been regular lately. But I did had an idea…

"I wonder what it is this time. If it's her…" My voice trailed. Zoey caught my mood.

"Promise me you'll wait for morning to go after her, Rythian. And don't go alone. Either bring Teep or me." I reluctantly stood up off the bed and walked towards the door.

"Rythian, I'm serious. Don't go alone." I nodded, a little frustrated at her over protectiveness. I'd fought her alone before, and I'd had less to fight for. I'd like to see the Queen take me down now.

Of course, I was in my thirties now. And not even my early thirties. I wasn't as young as I was last time. But, I also wasn't a helpless old man. I could still take on the queen on a bad day and win.

The screaming and crying continued, and I ran up the stairs, barely pausing to turn on the hallway light. If it was her, I wanted Olivia awake and out of her nightmare as soon as possible. I knew first hand what those dreams could be like.

I opened the door and snapped on the light. The screaming quieted and instantly, two big, round purple eyes locked on mine, shinning with tears. Olivia was sitting straight up, trembling with fear, her blankets knotted and thrown off the bed. I approached her carefully, not wanting to scare her if she could still see what was in the dream.

But, I didn't have to worry about that, because the moment I sat down next to her, she threw her arms around my neck and started sobbing. I wrapped my arms around her small, thin body. Zoey and I had often worried about how thin she was, especially because of how tall she was. Until I remembered that I had always been the exact same. Thin as a rail and super tall.

"Olivia, it's okay. What happened?" I asked, trying to calm her down.

"I don't know!" She wailed, continuing to sob. "I-it, I just don't know!" But I recognized the tone in her voice.

"Olivia. What did she tell you she'd do if you told? I know who it was. What it was. I've faced her before, and if she's threatening you, I'll face her again." I told her. She only hiccuped.

_ Notch damn it! She's only twelve! Why couldn't the queen wait until she was a little older?_ I thought to myself. But hadn't I been thirteen? There was only a year difference…

"Olivia?"

"Dad?"

"You know you can tell me, right? No matter what she told you, I won't let her hurt you. Or anyone."

"But how are you sure, dad?" She asked. I swallowed, hard.

"Because she succeeded once, and I'm never going to let her do it again." I told her, pulling her onto my lap.

"How? How did she succeed?" Now tears were gathering in my eyes. I didn't want to tell Olivia what had happened to her grandmother 25 years prior.

"Dad? I want to know." She told me.

"I was thirteen years old. The queen sent her attendants, the Endermen after me and my mother. They captured her, and I went to the End willingly. But, it was too late. My father, who you will never meet, killed my mother and almost killed me, because it was the will of the queen. But I still defeated her. So you don't have to worry about it." My daughter stared at me, looking scared.

"Olivia. It's okay. I'll never let that happen again. Not to you, not to Zo-er, your mom, no one." But that clearly wasn't what was bothering her.

"Why would your dad do that?" Zoey and I had agreed to leave the explanation of the name "Enderborn" to a much later date; even now that she was twelve. The longer she went without knowing the curse she'd been born with, the better. With a little luck, Enderborn traits would be first generation only, and she would never have to deal with the crap I had. But, if I wouldn't tell her about my father, what was I going to tell her?

"Because he's a bad person. But like I said. You don't have to worry about meeting him. Because I won't let him near you. Now tell me what the queen told you." Olivia still looked scared, but she took a deep breath, and began.

"She told me that I was never meant to exist, and to meet her in the woods tomorrow. And that if I told anyone, she'd kill them." I nodded. That sounded like something the queen would say.

"Well, I can tell you that you are definitely meant to exist. As for meeting strange and hostile creatures in the woods, if you even do that, if you survive, there'll be hell to pay. Talk to either mom or me before doing things like that. Even if the threat is death to anyone you tell." Olivia nodded, her long red hair falling in her face. I brushed it out of the way, tucking it behind her ears. It was almost identical to Zoey's except it had a blond streak in it.

"So, what happens tomorrow?" She asked.

"You'll stay with Teep, and your mom and I will meet the queen." Teep would like that. He adored our daughter, and I knew he'd spoil her rotten while we were gone, and hopefully keep her thoughts off of us, meeting the queen. I hadn't even noticed that an eclipse was coming tomorrow. Or maybe it wasn't and we were going to wind up in the End.

Olivia nodded.

"Are you good to go back to sleep now? You know you just have to call one of us, and we'll come, right?" Olivia nodded again, and slid off my lap onto her bed. I stood up and threw the covers back over her.

"Goodnight dad!"

"Goodnight Olivia."

She closed her eyes and I turned off the light, heading back down the stairs.

"Zoey?" I called into our room. She sat up sleepily, and glared at me when my fingers drifted to the light.

"Don't you dare." She told me.

"You have a minute. We need to talk. I'm going to get Teep, and when I come back, you need to be awake enough for me to turn on the light." I warned, walking out of the room.

Teep was asleep in his tower, and wasn't very happy when I woke him up. He actually wasn't going to come for a while. Until I dropped the bomb.

"Teep. The Enderdragon is threatening Olivia." Wouldn't you know he was suddenly willing to come?

About a minute later, we were in the bedroom again, with the lights on.

"Well, the bonus is, we don't need weapons. I'll kill her with my bare hands." I muttered, shaking with rage. I was so fed up with the queen.

"Rythian…you don't sound like you're kidding. You are kidding, right?" Zoeya asked hesitantly. Good to know she did care if I got myself killed doing something stupid.

"No, I'm not kidding. I'm not laughing, am I? I'm not serious, because I know I can't take her bare handed. But that's the only thing stopping me. First, she comes after me. Now, she comes after Olivia." I seethed.

_ Well, you knew it was coming the moment you found out she'd be born!_

_ If you don't shut up…You don;t want to know. I'm NOT in the mood to listen to your shit!_

_ What? It's not as if the queen has your daughter right now…_

Something about the way it said that struck fear into my heart. What if the queen did have her right now? The logical answer was that all the doors were closed, so the Endermen couldn't get in, but for some reason… I still got the feeling that I should go check on her.

"Guys…you discuss this. I'll be right back." I told them, walking out the door. But before I even got ten feet away, Zoey was beside me.

"Zoey… I can handle it." I told her. She glared back at me.

"This is about our daughter. I'm coming." I sighed, but inwardly, I was grateful she was coming. I had a sinking feeling that something was definitely wrong.

The only noise coming from Olivia's room was the flapping of a curtain that sat over the open window.

"Oh…Notch." I muttered, staring at the window. "No…Olivia… don't tell me…"

"Rythian? She left a note." Of course she did. But I got a feeling I

knew what it would say. And I didn't want to read it. Reading it would make it so much more real.

"Rythie?"

"Zoey. We have to go to the End. Now. Or she'll kill her. Olivia knew that we would be at the meeting place tomorrow, so the only option is the End. I never wanted you to go there…but its her only chance." I told her, staring numbly around the room. Why had Olivia left, instead of letting Zoey and I go?

"She…she didn't want us to go when it was her fault." Zoey told me.

"But it wasn't her fault! It isn't her fault! It's mine!" I cried. Zoey nodded sadly.

"Could it have been more than the queen? Been _it_?" She was clearly referring to my Enderside.

"Mine didn't start talking until I was thirteen, so it shouldn't be…and I don't even know if she'll have one." I told her. We needed to go, and soon. The queen wouldn't waste time hurting or killing Olivia. Unless she wanted us, me, really, present when she did so.

"Well then. We should go. Teep, are you coming?"

**Olivia's POV**

"-Well, I'm here now instead. My dad heard me screaming and figured it out. You should be more discreet about that kind of stuff." I spoke as confidently as I could, but inwardly, I was freaking out. The Queen was a lot bigger than I had though she would be. And while I had some fighting skills, I wouldn't be able to take on a full-size dragon.

But wasn't the point of me coming here that I'd die?

_**I will admit that you are correct, and that at leassst you came rather than letting your parentsss fall for you.**_

"Then could you please spare them if they come tomorrow?" I begged.

_** Only if they do not try for my life**_

"Tell them I don't want them to."

_** I shall.**_

"Then I am willing to die here." I told her, taking a deep breath.

The queen made a noise that could have been laughter.

_**Oh, no, ssspawn of Rythian Enderborn. I am afraid you will sssuffer firssst.**_

I frowned. "Lady. What have you got against my dad?"

_**He never told you of thisss? Ah, that makesss it ssso much more sssatisssfying. That isss how I will hurt you, Olivia Enderborn. I will tell you of your father'sss crimesss.**_

I thought about that for a moment. "Uh, Miss Psycho Queen, anything you think is a crime is a great thing for me!" I told her. She rolled her eyes.

_** Are you sure? He never told you about hisss parentsss, did he?**_

"Um… you mean the fact that you had his father kill his mom? Because that's your fault, not his." I snapped. What was up with the dragon? Why did she hate my dad so much?

**That issss not what I am ssspeaking of. **The queen hissed. I was quite frustrated with the queen right now. I'd come here to die. Not be irritated by the queen.

"Then what have you got to tell me before you kill me?" I demanded.

_**It isss sssimple. Your father isssn't human.**_ I looked at her disbelievingly.

"Oh really? Then what is he?" I asked, letting scorn fill my voice.

_** Enderborn.**_

"So, he's our last name. Yep, that makes sense!" I snapped.

_**YOUR lassst name. Your mother'sss lassst name. It's more for your father. It's a title. A breed.**_ I scowled. How could Enderborn be a breed? The thought was utterly ridiculous.

_**You do not believe me? Your grandfather isss one of my attendantsss. He failed to kill your father and fled from the fight that would have led to his demissse, but he killed your grandmother and I reluctantly pardoned his sssinsss.**_ Those words took a while to sink in.

"One of your attendants? So…"

A cruel snarl that may have been a grin rolled across the queen's face. _**An Enderman. Yesss. Your father is half Enderman, cursssed beyond human comprehension, and hasss brought you almossst the sssame fate.**_

"Hold up! I understand genetics. If he's half, and I'm half of him and half of my mother, then I'm only a quarter. Therefore, I cannot be cursed the same way."

The queen hissed. _**I told you. Almossst the sssame. All the worssst are there.**_ She declared. _**You can thank your father for that.**_

"Why? He didn't choose his parents, or to be cursed. And he didn't choose that for me, either."

**Rythian's POV**

"-And he didn't choose that for me, either." I was glad my daughter was willing to defend me when the queen was right. Of course, she probably wouldn't after the queen's next statement, because I could guess what that would be, but, it was good to know for now.

Teep and Zoey were crouched next to me, waiting for the moment that Olivia wasn't in striking distance of the queen so that we could join the party, I guess you could say.

_** But he allowed you to be conccceived.**_ I winced. Yep, I'd been right.

"You expect me to be mad at my dad for that? I wouldn't be here if he hadn't!"

I looked over to Zoey, who was very pale. "Rythian, what're the worst curses?" She whispered. Shit. I'd been hoping against hope that I'd heard that wrong.

"There's really only one that effects the rest. Take a guess, Zoey." No. No. No. No. No. No. Why did this sort of thing always happen to me? And now my daughter? She hadn't had the _issue_ with the mask, so I'd though she might be safe.

** If you will not blame him for that, you will blame him when you are killed by family. **Dread filled me, threatening to spill from my chest, like a cup too full of water.

"Zoey. My father is here. Right now." I choked. I'd had two had experiences with my father, none of them good. I wasn't eager to have another.

"He what?" Zoey demanded.

"He's here. Don't move. Wait until I call for backup." Teep nodded, but Zoey looked at me like I was crazy.

"Rythie, w-" I darted away and out of the slim amount of cover we had found.

_** Rythian Enderborn.**_ The queen growled.

"Dad?" Olivia gasped incredulously. The Enderman next to the queen said nothing.

"Hello, Olivia. Hello, Queen Bitch." I didn't address my father, which the queen apparently disapproved of. Maybe she had this whole big family reunion planned, with painful deaths included!

_** Sssay hello to your family, Rythian Enderborn.**_ The queen told me.

"I did. I said hello to my daughter." I said coldly.

_** Your father, Rythian. Adressss your father.**_ I stared at her.

**(A/N I don't normally do this...but this is the paragraph that you should skip if there's _any _parental difficulty at your house. I don't want to upset people, okay?)**

"It makes sense that you don't know this, as you're not a man, nor a father, but, if there's anything I've learned over the past twelve years, it's that father, or dad, or anything like that is a title you have to earn. And if you haven't wondered and worried about earning that title, and fretted that you don't deserve it, what kind of parent are you? That's not something that you get. It's something you earn. As far as I'm concerned, I have no father."

The Enderman didn't seem surprised when I disowned being related to him.

_** Fine.**_ The queen sniffed. _**But now, I have killed two birdsss with one ssstone. If your wife were here, the death count would be perfect.**_ Rage filled my chest, and my hands vibrated violently. Olivia paled beside me.

I forced my words through clenched teeth, fighting the urge to throw myself recklessly at the queen and die trying to tear her apart. "Actually, the death count wouldn't change from two. You, and it. Him. Whatever." Olivia stared at me, her teeth chattering, though it wasn't cold.

"You came alone? Without mom? Or Teep? Dad, this is a dragon!" She exclaimed.

"I've always fought her alone." I told Olivia, who looked at me skeptically.

"Hold up! The last time she attacked, you were what, 22? You aren't as young as you were!" I tried not to get mad about that. I could still take on a dragon at 38, thank you very much.

"I'm also not dead. So I can take her." I paused. Should I call for backup? Probably, just to be sure. I'd be fine… it was Olivia I was worried about.

_Zoey, Teep!_ I called.

_ \What's up?/_ Zoey asked.

_A little assistance would be nice! _I told them.

_ \Coming, Rythian! And nice job making her mad./_

_I thought so! _I replied. Zoey was silent for a moment, and I relaxed, waiting to see her and the dinosaur running out from their cover any moment.

_ \RYTHIAN! TURN AROUND!/ _Zoey's mental voice shrieked. I spun around, as I hadn't realized that the queen had managed to get behind me. Olivia was no where to be seen, but I assumed she was still alive, or I would have heard her scream. But I still didn't like that I couldn't find her.

The queen was already lunging at me by the time I was turned all the way around. I slid to the ground and she passed right over me. Once I was behind her, I could see that Olivia had followed behind her.

_** Deal with your ssson, and I will handle hisss daughter.**_

I rolled my eyes, jumping to my feet. "You DON'T threaten family. Apparently, you don't know that yet." Where were Zoey and Teep? I turned to Olivia.

"Run. Run as fast as you can. Get out of the End if you can. DON'T try to fight her." She nodded, and as she took off just as Zoey and Teep jumped out.

"Might want to rethink that divide-and-conquer strategy." I told the queen, who snarled. I laughed back.

"Zoey, Teep, take care of the dragon. I have a family issue to resolve." Zoey nodded, and I approached the parent I had just denied.

___**Rythian.**_ He…it… he, I supposed it must be a he to be my father, so he hissed.

_I don't have anything to call you that I can say with my family around. _I told him, drawing my sword. It was, of course, Enderbane. It stung my hand, which I was used to.

_** You have brought THAT blade again, have you?**_

"Well, of course! It suits that my mother made it, and now I'll use it to kill you." I spoke out loud now, knowing it bothered creatures of the End.

_** Rythian, you have to have gotten your fighting skills from someone, and it wasn't your mother. So, since your skills are inherited, you'll be surprised by who does the killing.**_

"My skills are my own. I can't inherit something if my precedents didn't have it, can I?" I snapped back.

He charged me first, his claws slashing against my blade, sparks flashing as they ran along the sharp edges.

Around us, the dragon breathed fire and lunged at Zoey and Teep. But I knew they could handle themselves.

I had sort of lied when I said I couldn't inherit something my father didn't have. He did have fighting skills. I just didn't like admitting it.

The flashing of claws and blade didn't cease, didn't slow for a long time. My breath came in raged gasps. I hadn't fought anything like this in ages. Both of us had drawn blood, the gash above my eye dripped irritatingly into my vision, but neither of us faltered, keeping pace with each other.

I grew increasingly more frustrated with each missed blow, each strike that failed to reach its target.

Our strikes grew slower and slower, but still flashing dangerously and eerily in the pale and dim light of the End. But still, neither of us dared stop or hope for victory. I needed to finish this and help Zoey and Teep. The queen was a hard kill, and they had never fought her before.

So, I sunk below the rules of good swordsmanship, and kicked my father's legs out from under him. He collapsed, and I lowered my blade so that it rested in line with his worthless heart.

"This," I breathed, knowing he'd still hear, "Is for my mother." I drove the sword into his chest, as far as I could force it through the ripping and tearing sinews and muscles, reaching the more vital organs.

"And this," I pulled the blade out, "Is for me." I drove it through another spot of his chest, and retracted the blade when his thrashing stopped. Then I turned to Zoey and Teep.

Compared to the fight my father had put up, the queen was nothing. Between my wife and the dinosaur, they had her pretty much dead by the time I turned to them. The queen uttered her usual threats of revenge, and we walked away from the grounds, searching for Olivia.

"If she's still in the End, she'll be near headed to the portal." I told them. Zoey nodded, and led the way back to where we had came from.

We didn't find Olivia in the End, but she was waiting for us just outside the portal. We ran up to her, and I threw my arms around her.

"Olivia. Oh, Notch. If you _ever _do something like that again..." I muttered. She pulled away and glared at me.

"Maybe I wouldn't have if you had told me the truth, _Enderborn._" She snapped. I paled. Zoey went to tell her off, but I shushed her.

"She's right." I muttered to Zoey, who only frowned.

"Yes, I should have told you. Yes, I know what it's like to have that kind of truth hidden from you. I know because my mother did it to me." She cut me off.

"Then why'd you do it, if you know what it's like?" She demanded. I held up my hands.

"Because I know why my mother did it now. She wanted me to grow up the best I could without that sort of knowledge."

"And how did I really grow up? Separated from everyone else. It's been you, mom, Teep, Ravs and once in a while, Nilesy. I don't know anyone my own age! I know there are others out there, why do you keep us separate from them?" I blushed. Zoey stepped into the conversation.

"We didn't know how they'd act. We haven't spoken to Duncan since the nuke went of, really, your dad was the last one of us to speak to him, a month after the nuke's explosion. Sjin was about the same amount of time. We never really saw Hannah, or Xephos, or really anybody else after the old world got exploded! Your father spent some time at Sipsco, but other than that, we really kept you away because we don't know the others." She explained. Olivia rolled her eyes.

"Well, I'm sick of it. So, time to put your differences aside and go talk to them. I never had that "growing up" you wanted me to have, like a normal kid would, and so, your efforts in lying to me have been wasted. Time to fix that. And tell me anything you haven't. Or the queen didn't. Whatever." I thought about it for a moment.

"When we get home, I'll explain. And tomorrow, we can go look into going to find the others. Okay?" I realized she was right. We'd been all concerned about her growing up properly, and then we'd kept her away from the others.

"Okay."

** Okay! That pretty much sucked. **

** I can tell you that I never calmed down from a nightmare that easily. I'd be fine, and then my dad would go to leave, and I'd freak myself out again. LOL!**

** Next one for this category will be soon, and will involve Olivia again. I've got a plan for her now. MWAHAHAHAHAHAHA! No it's not bad. For her...**

**Sorry about that mid-chapter author's note. I don't normally do that, but I _really _wanted to make sure I didn't upset people with that opinion.**

** Tune in around next week, same _cool _time, same _cool _channel! (Or...website... whatevs.)**

** With respect to my homies,**

** ~Featherflower**


	10. Chapter 10

**Merry Christmas, Wonderful Readers! This is actually really early, but whatever. This is a...songfic! Yay! Of Duncan's Christmas Party. I'm exited to see what my fingers will write... Have I ever told you guys that I sit at the computer (or my desk at school, with a piece of lined paper) and literally just let my fingers do the writing? I rarely try to plan what's going to happen. Example: My story about Herobrine? Re-wrote it because it was forced, suddenly the mental chat happened. (And Rythian's death. He didn't die in the original. Sorry! (NOT))And, on to the über important disclaimer...**

** I don't own the Yogscast, I'm not a member of the Yogscast, though that would be cool, I don't own the song Duncan's Christmas Party (YOGSCAST Duncan), I don't own Let it Go (Disney), I don't own the quote from Luna Lovegood (J K Rowling)... You know what? It's quicker just to say I own nothing but this story.**

**PS: See if you're smarter than Duncan! (You'll know what I mean.)**

**PPS: I'm not using InTheLittleFrost, because he scares me. A lot.  
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I ran around the castle, a broom in one hand, my claw in the other, alternately killing monsters and sweeping the floors. I still hadn't cleaned my castle since the most recent incident with a wither. (Hey, I'd been out of Nether Stars!)

"Duncan? We have a problem!" Kim called from the top floor of her tower. I placed another brick and looked up.

"What is it?"

"Even more of those **wisps are forming**!" She cried. I looked all the way up to the sphere full of what used to be vis.

"Oh... _shit!_" Firing up my jetpack, I went to go deal with the problem. But, about halfway up, my jetpack ran out of juice and I plummeted back towards the ground. Kim poked her head out of her window at the sound of my screaming, which eventually turned to swearing when I hit the ground.

"Son of a _bitch!_" I cried, hopping on one foot towards the steps outside Kim's door, every hop jarring my injured foot, making me wince. I collapsed on the steps.

"Duncan? Is there something I should grab?" Kim asked.

"No... just hope that I won't be on crutches for the Christmas party." I answered, then thought of something. "Actually, bring your jetpack so I can use that to take care of the wisps."

"Yep! Coming!" Kim appeared at the door of her tower. "Uh, Duncan, you may want to move..." I stood up and my right ankle would have shrieked if it could have. Kim raced out the door and let me sit down again.

"Oh, Duncan. What the hell did you do this time?" She asked, taking over the roll of my mother instead of my wife.

"I screwed up my ankle by landing on it!" Unfortunately, no healing means, magical of scientific, were very good with bones, so if I'd broken it, I was screwed.

"Let me see." She said, prying off my boot as gently as she could. Stars floated **all around me.**__Kim's fingers were sticky and cold on my foot.

"How high up were you when you fell?" Kim asked.

"About halfway up the- OW! What the hell, Kim?" I yelped as she suddenly started twisting my foot around.

"I've got to move it to see what's wrong with it, Duncan." She told me, continuing to torture me. In a little bit, she looked up and released my foot.

"I'm hesitantly saying you broke it. Let me guess, you tried to land on your feet." I nodded sheepishly.

"Take off your other boot." She ordered, standing up and heading towards the storage room. I pulled off my tall grey boot, for once regretting that I didn't wear something easier to take off. But the laces were so cool!

Kim raced back with a wad of bandages and plaster. She spent about a minute studying my undamaged ankle compared to my right ankle, then set out lining it up properly and binding it. I gritted my teeth and tried not to scream or cry like a baby.

"There you go! And here's my jetpack, and there's a set of crutches somewhere in the storage room. I'm going to look for a Christmas tree." Kim announced. I nodded weakly and Kim left the castle.

I stood the best I could and swung on the jetpack. Once that was on, it was pretty much like normal.

"Come at me, little buggers." I muttered, flying up to the flux and the wisps. I sighed inwardly. So much could be blamed on my **reckless magic. **Including the wisps.

My claw was rather effective against the wisps, and soon enough I was just reinforcing the reinforced glass around the evil magic. The last thing I needed was for someone else to fall in the flux. Or for me to get drunk and push someone in.

**Is the cause** for Kim and my taint drunkenness? No. But I like to pretend it is. And Kim doesn't question it.

I couldn't very well sweep now, so I resumed placing the bricks back in place in courtyard, though now I was depleting energy from a jetpack to do so. The air was chilly, and my breath began to cloud in my face.

"**It's the season!**" I muttered, shivering. "**Of Christmas miracles!" **I laughed. Maybe Santa would have some ideas. "**I need your help, Santa Claus.**"

"You called, Duncan?" I turned around to see a rather skinny Santa with no beard or hat. His blond hair was shinning with hoarfrost, like tree branches, but he didn't seem upset about it. I sat down, and Santa did likewise.

"Martyn. Did you spend all night outside _again?_" I asked, already knowing the answer. Martyn never spent the night inside unless it was minus forty outside. Or unless Kaeyi made him. Good thing his nature magic made him more resistant to cold than the rest of us.

"Of course! Where else would I spend it?" the Sapling Prince asked, sounding genuinely puzzled. I sighed.

"Okay then, what's up with you outfit?" I asked.

"Kaeyi and I were babysitting for Sjin and Minty while they got some last-minute shopping done. Cole and Sadie wanted Santa to come, and I'd found this costume a while back. Turns out, they're really warm!" Martyn explained. "So, what do you need help with?"

"Well, I have _so _many problems to sort out. First of all, there's **no more vis, just lots of flux**..." Martyn looked confused.

"What's vis? And what's flux?"

"...never mind. Anyways, the **cauldron's bubbling...** I take that back. The cauldron's** overflowed. **I've gotta go fix that!" I cried, standing up before remembering that I couldn't actually walk over there. So, fire up the jetpack and get it done that way.

"Duncan. What the hell did you do?" Martyn asked, following behind me.

"My jetpack ran out of energy while I was about halfway up to the top of the castle." I answered, almost carelessly. We both knew I was accident prone.

"JJ, Duncan, JJ." I ignored Martyn's comment and started cleaning the spilled contents of the cauldron, mopping them up with my white sleeve.

"Hey, maybe you should you a mop." Martyn told me. I rolled my eyes and went to get the mop and a pair of crutches.

"Oh, hey? It looks like your **golem's gone mad**!" Martyn called.

"What? Oh my Notch! Their **trashing my whole castle!**" I shouted, glancing out the window of the storage room. I threw down the mop and flew outside. Martyn just laughed at me.

"Stop that! Stop!" I cried, running up to the golem and trying to get it to cease smashing my castle. Martyn continued laughing.

"Hey! Martyn! Go get the mop and clean up the spill over there, okay?" I asked, flying into the air to try to handle it that way.

The Sapling Prince just grinned at me. "Having fun?"

"No!" I hissed, turning off my jetpack and and landing on the golem's back. Instantly, it started spinning in circles.

"Maaaartyyyyyyn!" I yelled. "Heeeeeelp!" I let go of the golem's back and was flung in a wall.

"Duncan? Are you okay?" Martyn called, running over.

"Ow…" I moaned, firing up the jetpack and getting up.

"Okay. Fixing the golem: not going to happen. So, I've gotta destroy it. Don't tell Zoey." I mumbled, grabbing my claw and going after the golem.

"Okay!" Martyn replied, finally going to clean up the cauldron.

I took care of the defective golem while Martyn mopped up the strange-smelling liquid. My sleeve was stained green, which sort of clashed with the purple tainting my skin. Rythian said he was close to curing it, but for now, Kim and I were still purple, though it wasn't contagious anymore. And it had stopped spreading, though for Kim that didn't really matter.

Once the golem was dead, I went to do some thaumcraft. I needed to work on that, and somethings might be helpful for cleaning and organizing my castle. However, nothing seemed to be working. I was really confused, until the simplest solution dawned on me.

"**I think I've depleted this vis node.**" I muttered.

"What's a vis node?" Martyn asked me. "Wait. Are they like the normal nodes I always run into? Cuz those are annoying." Martyn asked. I'd forgotten that he'd be able to hear me muttering to myself. With his heightened senses, I didn't know how Martyn could stand to be in here, with all the harsh lights and the buzzing and humming and squealing and clicking of the machines.

"Yeah, it's a bit like the nodes you find in the woods." I'd since moved on from magic to making a screwdriver.

"So, again, you called me?"

"Well, **I need some help at this festive time.**" I answered. "As you can see, the **castle's a total mess**, and our **friends** are **coming over for some drinks.**" Martyn looked questioningly a me.

"So?"

"So, **Saint Nick, help tidy up**!" Martyn nodded. I turned back to the chest, just to hear a shrill shrieking sound from the sorting machine. Martyn winced and plugged his ears.

"Sorry Martyn!" I called, running towards the constantly defective machine. The Sapling Prince nodded and excused himself to a quieter room.

"Okay, you piece of shit, time to stop." I seethed, glaring at the sorting machine.

After opening the chest at the top, I knew what was the matter. Someone had put a bunch of cookies in the chest, and I hadn't sorted the cookies into a chest to start with. Sighing, I pulled them out and put them on a tray by the door.

"Sorting **machine is sorting, back in action** and no longer squealing like a dying pig!" I called. Martyn walked back out of his refuge, shaking his head as though to clear it, spraying me with half-melted frost in the process. He grabbed a broom and I went back to making my screwdriver. Why was it so complex?

"Hey, Martyn Claus, won't Kaeyi be looking for you?" I asked.

"No, Kaeyi wouldn't let me in the house this morning, she said she was wrapping presents. That's why I'm here!" I completed my screwdriver as he spoke.

"Aha! **Sonic screwdriver**! For **screwing screws.**" Martyn sighed.

"I don't think Zoey would approve of that. Sonic screwdriver is a Doctor Who thing." The blond Saint Nick warned me.

"Oh, right! That's why it was so complicated!" I exclaimed. "Well, she isn't here!" I turned around.

"Hey, Martyn, everything's going great now, **all I wish is that** **"Father Christmas" would stop eating all my food**!" Martyn put down the cookie.

"They were sitting out on a tray, and I didn't eat breakfast! Like I said! Kaeyi wouldn't let me in the house!" It was a little after noon now.

"Okay, that case, I approve!" I told him. Martyn looked grateful as he picked up the cookie.

Suddenly, there was a buzzing noise and some giddy laughter. The noise I knew, but either of the two causes didn't normally laugh. The guy must be in a good mood. "Rythian?"

"Right on your first guess!" The Mage answered cheerfully, stepping into view. A pink woollen hat was perched on his head. His eyes glowed.

"Hey Rythian! Wait. No issue with your eyes?" Martyn asked. We all knew not to bother Rythian after he teleported, or his eyes were _really _bright, like they were right now, because otherwise we put the _whole world _in danger, according to the mage. Apparently it had to do with the End, but Rythian hadn't explained more than that. I'd often wondered if it had to do with his last name, Enderborn.

Rythian shook his head. "Go ahead."

"What's up with the hat?" Martyn asked. Rythian pulled off the hat, looking rather embarrassed.

"Zoey got it from the hospital and made me wear it." He explained, laughing at himself.

"Why was Zoey in the hospital?" I asked, shocked. Zoey'd never had a lick of bad health.

"Oh, she was a little sick this morning, but she's fine now! She'll be here around five." Rythian told us.

"You're sure she's fine? Cuz Kaeyi and I have been brushed off by the doctors before-" Martyn began before being cut off.

"Yes Martyn, we're sure. She's perfectly fine. More than fine." Rythian assured him.

"O-Kay!" Martyn sighed.

"So, what do we do now?" I asked, then grinned. "Wait. Don't answer that. I've got an idea that involves shot glasses and a dice." Martyn groaned. Rythian grinned at me. 

"Does it have to do with alcohol?" The Mage asked, still grinning.

"Maybe…" I admitted.

"Cool! I'm in!"

"Martyn?" I asked.

"What the hell. Why not?" The Sapling Prince shrugged. I flew off to get the glasses and the dice. And a set of crutches.

"Hey Duncan! Where are you?" Kim called. I groaned and put the empty shot glass on the table.

"I can't believe I rolled _four _sixes!" I whined, swallowing bile. "I'm in here, Kim!" Rythian started laughing.

"Wow, Lividcoffee. You really can't hold your alcohol, can you?" He asked. His violet eyes were bright, but other than that, there was no sign that he'd just had too many shots for him to be able to remember the exact number. I was sure he'd regret it tonight. And tomorrow. All three of us would.

"Where is here and is that Rythian I hear with you?" Kim demanded.

"We're in the storage room. And yeah, Rythian's here. And Martyn Claus." I replied.

Kim walked into the room. "Oh my Notch! Duncan, why are these bottles _empty?_" She asked angrily.

"Um..." I grabbed my crutches and stood up, shaky and dizzy. Rythian glance from me, to my wife, to his watch would be, if he had a watch.

"Oh! Zoey will be looking for me! Bye!" He teleported away.

"Kaeyi said she'd be done by now! See ya!" Martyn cried, stumbling out of the room.

"Thanks, guys." I muttered, looking at Kim. She glared back at me.

"Explain, Duncan." She told me.

I cleared my throat, and tried not to barf. Rythian was right. I wasn't great at holding alcohol. "We got bored, after the castle was clean. So... we got drunk." Kim sighed and walked out of the room.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"To hide the Aspirin."

"Hey!"

A few hours later, Rythian came back, with Zoey in tow.

"Hi there, jerk! Come on in! Talk to Kim for me! She's still mad! I'd offer you a drink, but we drank most of what was upstairs, and if I try to go down the stairs, I'm likely to bash my face in!" I told Rythian, hobbling up to the two of them. Rythian snorted.

"I feel like I'm missing something here." Zoey declared.

"Maybe you should look into your husband's eyes to figure it out." I told her. Rythian tried to duck, but Zoey caught hold of his chin and looked at how bright and bloodshot Rythian's eyes still were.

"Rythian! What did you do?" She asked.

"I played a game. Never mind that. No, Duncan, I don't want anything to drink." The mage changed the subject rather rapidly.

"Zoey?" I asked.

"No!" The two answered together. How had Rythian known Zoey didn't want a drink?

Zoey looked at my crutches as though just noticing them. "Oh! Duncan! What did you do this time?"

"My jetpack died while I was halfway up the tower." I replied. Zoey sighed.

"I'm not surprised, Duncan." What can I say? I was accident prone!

"What was that about falling, Duncan?" Lewis asked, walking into the castle with Hannah in tow. Sjin and Minty were close behind them.

"Hey guys! Sjin, whose looking after Sadie and Cole?" I asked.

"Sarah and Matt said they would." Hannah told me. I wondered if Lewis and Hannah's kids, who were twins and barely twelve years old, could handle Sadie and Cole. They were _crazy!_

"Poor them." Simon muttered, walking in behind Sjin and Minty.

"They volunteered!" Minty laughed. Lewis shrugged.

"They'll be fine. If they have to, they'll just sit _on _them instead of for them!" Hannah rolled her eyes. We walked (They walked, I hopped) into the courtyard, which had been set up as kind of a living room thing by Kim. I flopped onto one of the chairs, my ribs already aching from pressing the crutches against them. The others sat down around me, and gradually more people came in.

Rythian was seated on my left, and Nilesy, once he showed up, sat on my right.

"Hey, Nilesy, how's the pool business going?" I asked the pool boy.

"Pretty good! No one's killed me recently..."

"So life's good! And it's gonna be great now, cuz there's gonna be booze involved!" I pause to hear Rythian and Martyn groan. "**We're tucking in to my moonshine tonight!" **

Kim crept up to me. "Um, Duncan? I may have dropped the cocktails and stuff down the stairs. We have no food."

"Oh, Kim." I muttered, giving her a kiss. "We have food! There are cookies on a tray near the storage room! Unless Martyn ate them all..." Martyn shook his head.

"There's still lots!" He insisted.

"Whatever. There's also stuff in the storage room. Kim, could you offer the drinks around?" I asked. She nodded.

"What are we serving tonight?" She asked, turning towards the basement stairs.

"The stuff in the third thingamabobber." I answered. She ran down the stairs to grab the drinks, and returned a few minutes later. She handed me one, then turned to Rythian.

"Want one?" Rythian nodded.

"I'll regret this tomorrow, but, sure." The mage accepted the glass and glanced inside.

"Duncan, do I want to know what this is? Or how strong it is?" I shook my head.

"Homebrew." Rythian sighed and took a tentative sip.

"Not bad!"

Kim turned to Zoey. "You?"

"I can't, Kim." She replied, smiling. Rythian grinned as well, and I wondered why.

"Something lighter, maybe?" Kim asked.

"Nope! Still can't!" Those two were positively beaming now. What the hell was going on?

"Do you mind me asking why not?" Kim continued.

"No, I don't! I can't drink any alcohol!" She answered. Kim gasped, recognition lighting her face. My wife started beaming as well.

"Wait! What's going on?" I demanded, super confused. The girls all started laughing at me. Rythian facepalmed. Lewis just sighed. At least Martyn, Simon and Nilesy still looked lost as well... though Ravs seemed to have figured it out.

"Can we tell them?" Zoey asked.

"I don't see why not!" Her husband replied. "Though Duncan, being that he's a scientist, I would have expected him to have guessed by now."

"Hey, I'm a scientist as well, and I didn't guess it!" Zoey argued. "Anyways, for the clueless males in the room who haven't figured this out, I'm pregnant!" She exclaimed. "We just found out this morning."

"Oh... That makes sense. Okay, I'm an idiot. Congratulations!" I laughed, punching Rythian on the shoulder and reaching over him to give Zoey a hug.

Rythian rubbed his arm and narrowed his eyes. "What was that about?"

"I didn't want to hug you." My only reply from the mage was a sigh. Other people echoed my congratulations.

"You guys are going to be busy soon, trust me." Lewis told them. Sparkles* opened his mouth, then closed it again.

"Never mind. Not gonna say that." He muttered. Beckii smacked his arm.

"Sparkles*!" She admonished. Rythian and Zoey blushed, figuring out what the singer had been going to say.

"We're getting a little too far into fanfiction here!" Nilesy told us. Rythian blushed even redder, if that was possible. Zoey just started giggling.

"See what you started?" Beckii asked, glaring at Sparkles*, who just laughed.

"Well, Zoey, at least this time it's not just Baby Jim..." Ravs laughed.

"_That's _true." Rythian agreed.

"Oh..." Zoey smiled mischievously. " Let it go! Let it go! " Rythian groaned.

"Not this _again! _It was funny the first few times..." He complained.

"Can't hold it back anymore!" Kaeyi added, sticking her tongue out at the mage when she was done. Martyn rolled his eyes and plugged his ears. Sadly for him, he'd still hear it pretty well.

"Let it go! Let it go! Turn away and slam the door!" Sjin sang, rather horribly. "Oh, yeah, um, Lewis? Hannah? Just letting you know that after babysitting Sadie and Cole, Sarah and Matt are going to have that song stuck in their heads!"

"My poor children." Lewis muttered. Hannah just snorted. Kim picked up her tray and handed out more drinks. No one else refused, though I did get quite a few dirty looks from some people after their first sip.

"Dude." Sparkles* coughed. "I don't know if that's really good, or really nasty." He complained.

"Let's go with really good." I told him. Sparkles* shrugged and took another sip.

There wasn't really a problem until Hannah declared that she had an idea.

And that was how I wound up eating a cookie soaked in the moonshine.

And _that _was nasty. Zoey rolled her eyes and asked for a glass of water, which Kim ran to go get, and the "dares" just got worse and worse.

** _The evening's _**_been_**_ going well, _**I thought to myself. We were well into our cups...or cookies, and the room was sort of spinning... but hey, I wasn't feeling any pain. Martyn had learned not to stand up too fast, and had a rapidly forming bruise on his chin to prove it, but other than that, nothing had really gone wrong!

Unless you count the fact that I had already almost thrown up. But that wasn't just alcohol, that was the cookies and other shit too.

****But **then St Nick spilled Simon's drink and Simon wants to fight. **Martyn muttered an apology to the drunk dwarf and tried to escape, but Simon was covered in moonshine and pissed off. Rythian quickly pushed Zoey out of the room and raced back to my side. Somehow, he was barely stumbling. Maybe it was because he hadn't had any cookies. Well, he had. But not the kind I'd had.

"You stop Simon. I'll protect Sapling Claus." He told me. I nodded and stumbled towards the dwarf. The closer I got, the more **punches **were **flying all around me.**

"Simon! What the f-" I was cut off as **Simon landed** one **punch,** **on** the side of **Santa** Martyn Claus's **jaw**. The Sapling Prince groaned and hit the ground with a dull thud. Rythian glanced at the man on the floor, then back at Simon, who _still _looked dangerously at Martyn. So, Rythian did the logical thing. He tackled the dwarf to the ground, earning himself a few punches before Simon calmed down a bit. Even then, the dwarf's flailing arms kept hitting Rythian's ribs and face.

"Ow..." He moaned. I turned towards Martyn, figuring the mage could handle Simon.

Kaeyi had raced up to Martyn's side. Sjin was kneeling beside him, tapping on his shoulders. "Well, I guess **it's the season of dwarven drunken brawling**..." He muttered.

"**I'm so sorry, Santa-Claus-**Martyn." I whispered.

"**Are you okay, Santa Claus?" **Sjin asked, still tapping on Martyn's shoulders. There was no response to Sjin's question.

"Okay!" I called, kneeling down and placing Martyn's head on my lap. "I'd say **Simon's knocked out Santa Claus!**" Kaeyi frowned at me.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

"Trying to wake him up." I replied, running my fingers along the back of his neck until I found the two cords of muscles and veins that I was pretty sure I was supposed to find. They were on the side, but just barely in the back. Then I ran my fingers forcefully along them, from the base of his neck up to the base of his skull, trying to force the blood back into his brain.

Martyn didn't stir for quite a while, giving me enough time to get worries that I was doing it wrong. His face was unnaturally pale. Simon still hadn't really calmed down, though he'd stopped punching Rythian.

"Um, Duncan, are you sure you know what you're doing?" Kaeyi asked.

"No!" I snapped, not ceasing rubbing the Sapling Prince's neck. Rythian sat up straight enough to see what I was doing.

"He's got it right, it's just taking a while. Check his pulse, Kaeyi." He directed. Kaeyi placed two trembling fingers on Martyn's neck.

"It's still there." She assured us.

"Then that'll work in a little bit." Rythian promised. Just as he said that, Martyn gasped sharply and his eyes fluttered open. Kaeyi didn't even give him a chance to sit up, she just threw her arms around his neck and gave him a kiss.

Zoey walked back into the room. "Thanks for coming to get me when it was over." She told her husband sarcastically. Rythian blushed, and scrambled to his feet. He had a back eye and dark spot on his cheek, which continued under his mask, and it looked to me like he was in pain when he stood up. He probably had even more bruises under his mask, but obviously none of us would see those.

"Rythian, you look like you got run over by a herd of mooshrooms." Zoey told him, laughing. "That's karma for leaving me in there."

"Why do I get karma for trying to make sure Simon didn't knock someone else out? Anyways, I feel like I got ran over, too. But I assure you, it was just Simon." Zoey glared at the dwarf, who didn't even have the decency to look embarrassed.

Martyn got to his feet and collapsed in a chair. "Two things. One, I need a drink, please. Two, Simon, what the hell?"

"You spilled my drink." The dwarf replied. Martyn rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, cuz _that's _a reason to knock me out and beat the crap out of Rythian." The blond scorned. Kaeyi glared at Simon and grabbed Martyn a drink.

I must have eventually crashed on one of the chairs, and no one bothered to wake me up after that. I woke up to bright sunlight filtering into the castle. _My _**_head is hurting_**_, _I thought, _I must have an entire band in it, not just a drum set._ That was the last time I agreed to anything Hannah came up with. I was **so hungover **it wasn't even funny.

"Kim?" I groaned. She sat up sleepily.

"What?"

"**Where's the Aspirin?" **This question was nearly a groan as well.

"I told you. I hid the Aspirin yesterday, and forget where I put it." She replied. At that, **I did groan, **resisting the temptation to slam my head into a wall.

Rythian sat up. "I don't suppose you have a way of curing a hangover with your sciency ways..." He asked me.

"Same question, with magic." I replied.

"Shit." As he said that, Zoey sat up, smiling.

"Hey there! How're you all today?" She asked cheerfully. Rythian smacked her arm playfully.

"What's wrong with you today?" She asked.

"Smart ass." Rythian muttered. "Like you aren't normally sick in the mornings." Gradually, the others began to stir.

"Oh, Notch. Duncan, I'm going to kill you." Sparkles* told me.

"Please don't." Kim told him. "He might be an idiot, but he is my husband. I do want him around. Sometimes."

"Thanks! Glad to know you like me."

"You know what, Duncan? _No one _likes you." Kim told me.

"Wow! Why would you say that, Kim?" I asked, pretending to be hurt.

"Because it's true!" Sparkles* told me.

"Sparkles*! Why are you being so mean toda- er, lately?" Beckii asked.

"Cuz I'm hungover and tired." He answered, yawning.

"Your fault." Beckii told him.

"Never denied it! But I now know that the most repeated word in a song about drinking would be: Ow."

Martyn frowned at the ginger. "You were thinking about making a song about _drinking?" _He asked.

"Dude, there are only so many Animes out there. And I've wrote a song about chipping my tooth. So why shouldn't I write one about drinking?" Sjin sighed.

"Oh, Sparkles*." He chuckled.

Rythian shook his head. "I have the weirdest group of friends ever."

"Aw, don't worry Rythian! Your just as sane as I am!" I told the mage.

"I'm worried."

"Okay, but honestly, out of all of us, Beckii's probably the sanest one here. And probably the most normal, too." Sparkles* shook his head.

"Trust me, you're wrong." Beckii nodded.

"I'm not normal."

My head pounded some more. "Okay! I'm really tired, but, **still, it's the season, and we've had a good night! **So I'm gonna say this nicely. **Merry Christmas, now go home!" **Kim nodded.

"Thanks for coming!"

"Oh, my Notch. The **castle's filthy!" **Kim cried. The was **dirt all around me.**

"This **looks like the outhouse of SipsCo." **I muttered, searching for the broom again. Carrying it back to Kim was a task though.****

I hopped around aimlessly, picking up empty glasses and putting them into a bag on my back.

"Hey, Kim? There's a bunch of dirt over here!" I called. "**And, there's a fat man stuck inside the chimney**... he looks a bit like Martyn..."

Kim ran over. "**Oh my Notch! It's Santa Claus!"** She cried. Kim helped the old man out of the chimney, after which point he frowned at me and told me I was on the naughty list. Then he left. Thanks, Santa!

"Okay! Inventory if the castle. **Empty bottles are everywhere, booze has been spilled on the floor, **the ground is covered in crumbs and dirt..." Kim told me.

"Have you found the Aspirin?"

"No."

** "That's the last time I drink so much homebrew." **I groaned.

"I hope so."**  
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**Merry Christmas everyone  
>Merry Christmas have some fun<br>Merry Christmas from Drunkan**

** See you guys later! Have a safe and happy Christmas, and don't get _too_ drunk! (If you're an adult)**

**~Featherflower**


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